Layers
by BookReads28
Summary: Annabeth has always had a plan, in every aspect of her life she knew what she was going to do down to the date, she wasn't going to waste her life on any mistakes or unexpected surprises. Life is too short for that. She knew who she would marry, how many kids she would have, where she would work. It was all planed out, every detail. That is, until she met him...
1. Chapter 1

**Hi everybody! This is my first story and I'm really excited for this! PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! ;)**

**And no. This story and characters and everything in it does not belong to me. It belongs to the oh so wonderful...Rick Riordan *applause*.**

They were flashes. Swiping past her vision fast enough to make anyone dizzy; she couldn't make out the images at all. There were so many things happening all at once that it took her sometime before she realized what was what they were, it was showing a story in pictures. Well, more like a story full of blurry colors actually.

Her vision seemed sharper, more attentive to detail than usual. Things passed by her eyes, zipping in and out of her mind. Overwhelming her senses to the max. Flashes of green and orange colored her vision. They were all too bright and vibrant to possibly be real, but they were still beautiful and intrigued her none the less. She couldn't comprehend what she was seeing or why, which was very odd for her.

She had gotten used to the patterns and intricate paintings of colors when everything just went still. It went blank and dark at the same time and after a while, she thought it would stay that way forever.

Suddenly everything sharpened and got more lucid, almost like the world was blurry and she finally could see. Now she could make out what she was looking at.

There were large trees, their limbs and leaves moving softly together in sync in the breeze. While the sun rained down, showering its rays on everything in its path and lighting it up. Some patchy clouds floated in the sea-like-sky, making shapes and constantly blowing out of sight. The birds flew along in the air and around the many big buildings and towers, narrowly dodging trees and walls. Down bellow the entire ground was filled with bright, grass, littered with wildflowers and trees. She noticed the familiar way that the small hills dipped and bobbed like a fish jumping out of the water.

Oak trees, Apple trees, shrubs and wild weeds invaded lots of the space along with little animals like the squirrels and rabbits that hopped along. The many people walked or sat along together, clad in bulky jackets and mittens, talking happily away. Hot dog stands lining up the road corners like cars in a parking lot. Each stand crowded by lines that had formed filled with hungry customers waiting to eat

And every last person was completely unaware of her watching.

Though she was pretty sure this wasn't real, she couldn't be sure, everything seemed so out of place and overly bright, but the images seemed to get quite fuzzy at times. It was clearly not her own vision, more like she was looking through someone elses eyes. She did however, catch on pretty quick to her surroundings while racking her brain.

This was Central Park.

Well it was where her mind took her anyway.

She hoped she wasn't going crazy, she was pretty sure this isn't where she was supposed to be she could've sworn she was still at home, studying or doing God knows what, but here? No she shouldn't be here.

She felt a tug in the back of her mind and not in the physical sense, more like mental. It was as if her brain was being yanked in the other direction, forcefully. Something wanted her attention. Turning around, her focus zoned in on a small girl, she was a cute little girl, her rain boots were twice her size and had little swans and clouds on them. She had on some bright gold tights and an over sized purple sweater with a cartoon rabbit on the front. Her long brown hair was in two lopsided pigtails and was holding an ice cream cone in her hand that looked to be on the verge of capsizing as the child jumped from puddle to puddle. She was holding hands with someone, who was looking down at her smiling.

She couldn't tell what had drawn her to the little girl, but she figured it it must have been a mistake so she began to look back around.

That is, until the the girl turned her way.

The little toddler's eyes were glowing.

They shined so bright it looked as if they had grown 3 times their normal size.

They seemed to sear into her mind, reading her every thought and sifting through her brain. She should have been frightened by the intensity or the girls stare, if they weren't so beautiful.

The orbs were an ocean of colors, there were swirls of blues and greens and yellows and blacks. Even through their strangeness, she felt a certain familiar-ness to them. She had seen them before, she knew it, though she wasn't sure it was possible for there to be anything that abnormal and gorgeous all at the same time. But as quickly as she turned to her the first time, the small girl turned back around to the puddles.

And when she eventually caught her eye once more, the luminous that seemed to burn with such bright intensity, had faded into a dark brown.

Just in time for her vision to go dark and her mind drift away.

Annabeth shot up fast, suddenly woken up by the sound of someone calling her. She winced, rubbing her forehead after smacking it on the top bunk of the bed. There was going to be a knot there later on.

Flinging herself back down she stared at the ceiling for a few minutes to catch her breath. She was confused, drenched in sweat and was still trembling as she got up to peel herself out of bed and go stumble into the shower.

Discarding her clothes and getting under the hot spray was comforting, relaxing the muscles that she had no clue were tight, and letting her mind go free to wander.

A dream, she thought.

She had a dream.

A dream that she just couldn't seem to conjure up at all, though it seemed quite important that she did. She tried to bring back something that she could possibly remember from it, but she got nothing, as usual. She shook her head, she couldn't focus on that right now, she pushed that to the back of her mind forcing herself to collect her thoughts and get ready for the rest of the dreadful day. It was the first day of school and she really wasn't looking forward to it. Not that she didn't love learning and all that, she did, it was just all the extras that came with it. High school -senior year to be exact- was like the melting pot, the cut off year, the toilet flusher. It was the end of her life being a teenager and the beginning of her life as an adult. She had come to terms with this a while ago, living life to the fullest and all that crap, and she was fine with it. It was just the in between that got her in a crabby mood on days like this.

Stepping out the shower and into a towel she padded back to her room and headed towards the window. Sighing, she felt all the remaining hope drain out of her body. The least mother nature could do was make it nice outside, that way there could actually be something to make her want to go to that hell hole. "Sunny and bright to make the spirits right, and when the sun goes away, dream that it will come back for another day," her father used sing it to her to make her cheer up when she was young. But that doesn't help much of anything now because her father wasn't here anymore and apparently neither was the sun. It was foggy and damp outside from yesterday's rain and she could practically feel the humidity from inside. Sighing, she knew her hair wouldn't stand a chance.

Dressing, Annabeth made things pretty simple, a white dress and flats, too much walking for heels and she was pretty sure no one cared how she dressed anyway. She fluffed out her hair to the best of her ability -which wasn't much- just to tame it to a less wild look, and grabbed her bag. She didn't even bother with makeup, she just needed to get out of there before her mother saw her and had her go change into something more "presentable".

She slipped out the apartment door just in time for her brothers to start running down the stairs screaming about food. She didn't have time for pleasantries.

Annabeth took the stairs two at a time while going down the three floors that took her to the lobby. The matter of her commute to school in the mornings was always a topic of argument -amongst other things- between Annabeth and her mother. Her mother didn't understand why she would waste her, "precious taxpayer's dollars" by not using the elevators and Annabeth, well she just wished her mother could go to Hades.

Sure most of the reason she does it in the first place is because of her undying love of pissing her mother off, but she actually enjoys walking those steps and plus, elevators make her nauseous.

Walking into the lobby she looked around the familiar space, it was exceptionally warm down here today.

Turning the corner towards the door she was abruptly met by the crinkled, friendly face of Holland, the cheery old bellman who had, over the years, befriended Annabeth. He probably understood her hatred of school and people more than anyone.

Actually... There were a few people in the world that she could never truly hate though, her best friends.

Well technically just one...Thalia. They met in 1st grade after an incident on the play ground left Annabeth partially bald and Thalia suspended from school for a week and they have been best friends ever since.

You see that's actually how she met Jason, the're brother and sister. Twins to be exact, and wherever Thalia went, Jason always followed.

It didn't take long for Annabeth to realize that Jason was always more than just a friend though, even from the moment they met.

She loved him.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when Holland spoke, with a heavy accent "Have a nice first day little one, i know yer don't fancy school one bit, but the sooner yer finish, the sooner yer can leave, aye?" He said with a wink.

"Yeah, i guess, thanks," she mumbled with a wave and slipped out the door.

The chilly air ambushed her as soon as she stepped out, she could feel the air changing and trying to hold on to the last seconds of summer, but the cold autumn air had started taking over and pretty soon it would be a winter wonderland down here. She shivered as the goosebumps popped up on her arms and legs and she sped up her walking. Maybe a dress wasn't the best idea.

Walking to school didn't take very long, she got there in about 5 minutes. Of course she did live literally across the street from it.

Stepping into the parking lot of the school, she noticed nothing had changed, the hideous blue paint that covered every inch of the school was still peeling, the long drain pipe was still hanging off the side of the building like a death trap, and one of the o's in Goode High that had fallen off freshman year, had not even been touched.

She looked around the parking lot which didn't help her nerves, there was no one outside. Was everyone so eager for school to start? She thought. She started to get hopeful as she took the front steps two at a time, but walking into the school was not any better.

There was absolutely no soul in sight.

She walked down the halls looking for any form of life, but was just met with rows and rows of bright yellow lockers. She was relieved to come across one person who was leaning against the wall doodling on a textbook, his wild black hair masking his face. He looked approachable enough, but the glare he sent her when he looked up didn't seem very friendly.

She was getting frustrated and tired of walking around, had she gotten the dates mixed up or something? She was pretty sure it was Monday. Glancing at her wrist, she checked to see if she was too early, but her watch wasn't there. She sighed. Glancing up, her face was met by a large electronic clock on one of the lockers, the red numbers glaring back at her and searing into her mind.

"Shit!" She cursed under her breath and broke into a run in

the direction of her class.

Apparently her shower this morning had been a little too long, because it was 9:58, and she had missed the entire 1st period.

**Thanks guys :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi guys! It's my second chapter!  
****I love feedback guys :b**

**This story and all of its characters belong to the oh so wonderful... Rick Riordan *applause*.**

By the time Annabeth finally got through the doors of the classroom -which she was epically tardy for- she was flushed, sweaty and panting like a wild animal. Not to mention she tripped three times on the way over, losing her shoes multiple times.

Peeking in, not one person looked up at her, even as she had to walk in front of the entire class to get to the only vacant seat in the room.

Right in the front.

Sitting down in the cold chair, she realized she couldn't have picked a more stupidly placed seat. She couldn't see anything aside from the blackboard and the teacher. Even her peripheral vision was obscured by the chipping blue walls. This is what she would have as her entertainment all year.

This is why she's always had a seat in the back, so she could pretend be the quiet, unsuspecting girl who sat alone and didn't talk to or bother anyone, but was secretly spying on every individual in the room. Survival 101.

Sad? Absolutely.

But she preferred it like that, her system helped her get out of trouble.

But not this time. She could practically feel the stares in the back of her head, making her want to curl in on herself and crawl out the room on all fours. She was glad she wasn't alone in her thinking though, the kid next to her looked ready to just bolt at any moment.

Sighing, she leaned down, chin in hand wondering about what to do, the teacher hadn't bothered glancing up yet so she decided it would be best if she tried to make it look like she had been there the whole time. And by that, she meant do nothing because the teacher clearly wasn't making her time useful anyway.

She started doodling shapes and patterns in her textbook, which she had previously decorated with tiny little hearts and glitter, to pass time. She even ate some the sandwich and apple she managed to grab before she left this morning. Her IPod kept out all the sounds of classroom, the quiet chatter, the sound of pencils and erasers being gnawed down, everything. Even the sound of the door being slammed open.

She didn't notice the teacher had started talking until another voice had joined in. "Your late." Her teacher stated without looking up from his stack of papers that hadn't seemed to change since she herself had walked in, "Oh, didn't notice. I guess I was roaming the halls for no reason then, huh?" A deep voice answered sarcastically. Annabeth's head shot up at the sound so fast, her neck popped. Only to realize everyone else had already trained their attention to the intruder.

It was the weird guy in the hall that she ran into earlier, she was kind of glad she hadn't asked him for help now, he was kind of an ass... a scary ass too.

His back was to the class as he spat at the teacher, who was trying -and failing- to ignore the rowdy teenager. "Are you going to let me sit down or give me detention? Either way, could you make it fast? Believe it or not, I've got some sleeping to catch up on." The guy said, tapping his long fingers against the teachers desk impatiently. The older man flicked his hand in an impatient gesture and turned looking around the room until his eyes, coincidentally, found Annabeth's.

She stiffens as he narrows his eyes, shes hoping that two things wouldn't happen... Especially at the same time. She really didn't feel like going off on her teacher on the first day of school because he called her out in front of the class or put that delinquent next to her.

She was almost relieved when her teacher looked away, as if he had forgotten the reason he had been looking around in the first place. Annabeth was praying that he was elderly enough to just forget things on the spot like that.

But life isn't always very kind.

After recollecting his thoughts the teacher points at her, "You, yes you, stop trying to act innocent. You weren't here at the beginning of the class." He says waving his bony finger in the air. Annabeth pales and slowly nods her head, fearing her voice might squeak. The older man sighs, "Because this is why I teach", he mumbles -not so silently- under his breath. "Good," he starts, "the two delinquents can sit together then." He smiles, his lips tight.

Annabeth almost gasped out loud. Turning crimson with anger, she tried to control her breathing before she said anything rash that would put her in the office. She had never been called anything worse than an "angel" in her entire life, let alone a delinquent! She was fuming, but the stupid nuisance himself just starting smirking as he pulled up a desk next to hers. "What's your name son?" The younger boy grimace, but still managed to raise one black eyebrow in question. "Never mind I know, you've been in my detention classes long enough." With a grunt he turned around to continue whatever he was doing before he was interrupted.

The entire class seemed to calm down too and kept their quiet murmurs to themselves. Annabeth turned to the boy next to her, she didn't know what she was expecting out of him, to speak or introduce himself, she didn't know. But she didn't expect him to the just fold himself over the desk and start snoring in the 45 seconds that he had come over.

When the bell finally rang, Annabeth got her things together, shouldered her backpack and took one last look a the dreaming teenager, who's drool had made a line down his face and formed a puddle by his arm. His face etched in a permanent scowl.

She thought about waking him up, helping him out so he wouldn't be late, but that wouldn't do anybody any good. He didn't seem like the type of person to take being awoken by strangers lightly either.

After one more glance Annabeth started down the hall to her locker, well to find it mostly. "327," she said to herself remembering everything on her schedule. She passed by her locker several times in the mess of yellow before she finally found it, but when she did all she could do was cringe. She just had to get the worst locker in school, the one with enough scratches and craters on it to be confused with a used sheet of foil. It has always had a gravitational pull for on coming fights and flying objects and because of that, it had earned itself a nickname.

And now she was stuck with it.

Opening it she examined the inside, she could deal with this, there were a few dents and scraps, but nothing that couldn't be beautified. She's been decorating her lockers since the 5th grade, it was something that helped her past time and helped make going to this hell hole everyday, manageable. She planned to do the same with this one, whether or not it was hideous on the outside.

She started pulling her text books out of her bag, when large hands suddenly obscured her vision.

Her first thought was to scream, but she knew that wouldn't do any good, with half the people in this school being so stupidly oblivious. She calculated the size of the hands and the height.

A boy.

She couldn't exactly run because seriously, kidnappers should be prepared for that, but she soon realized she wouldn't need to. "Guess who," a deep voice whispered in her ear, she relaxed as she recognized the voice instantly. Turning around she wrapped her arms around his neck, his bright eyes shining as he looked down at her, "You know, you really shouldn't sneak up on girls like that," she started scolding, slightly annoyed. He raised an eyebrow, "You didn't think I was trying to abduct you, did you?"

She looked pointedly at him, daring him to go there. His eyes grew wide with humor, "You did didn't you? Anna if you would actually just stand there while someone attempted to kidnap you, I don't-," she stopped him mid-laugh with a glare. "I was estimating the time it would take me to get in one kick between the legs, one to the ribs and another to the jaw before anyone noticed and then after getting rid of your body, I would have continued unpacking my bag." Stunned into silence he just stared. Annabeth raised an eyebrow threatening him to talk and when he didn't she just smirked with satisfaction. Coming back to his scenes he made a claw with his hand, "Raw r, kitten has nails, dontcha." She smiled, "You know, I think you're just all bark and no bite. You've threatened me enough, but you would never really do anything. "Oh you have no idea." Annabeth said with a glare. A small smiled lifted his lips as he drew closer, placing an arm around her waist and leaning forward, their faces inches apart, she could feel his breath fanning her face.

"You always have a plan don't you, and a plan B and a plan C," he said with a grin while his eyes twinkled. "You know me well, Grace," Annabeth whispered, their foreheads were touching. He moved to close the gap-. "No PDA in the hallway!" They sprung apart, startled by the booming voice just feet away. "Baby brother, have I taught you nothing?" Her voice was right next to them then. Sighing, Jason hid his face in Annabeth's shoulder, "Hello Thalia," he greets with muffled annoyance. Annabeth pinched the bridge of her nose and cringed, she hadn't opened her eyes yet in fear that whatever was about to come out her mouth, would bring on a migraine. She opened one eye and was met with the short frame of her best friend. "To what do we owe this visit, Thals?" The tiny girl frowned, "Why are we acting like we didn't see each other just yesterday?" She says, her hands on her hips.

"Maybe we wanted to be alone, did you think about that?" Jason asked standing up straight. Rolling her eyes Thalia just sighed. "You guys do realize that this is a hallway, as in, no privacy whatsoever. And anyway I still don't get it, Nico and I aren't like that."

"You and Nico aren't normal, everyone knows this, it's like, a fact."

Glaring at her sibling Thalia stalks forward and fear springs into Jason's eyes. Annabeth had to muffle her laugh with her hand as the two stared each other down.

"Little brother, don't you have somewhere else to be?" Annabeth watched as understanding passed through their eyes. Jason nods, "Yeah, i'll see you later ladies," he winks at her and walks off leaving her staring at the back of his retreating form.

Thalia turns towards her and reaches around her head, tapping on the metal slab behind her, "Oh look, you got "Denty". I could have sworn there was a bet about who would be next to get it this year." She chuckled and Annabeth just grimaced.

"You know you should really stop calling him that, it hurts his ego," she started jabbing her thumb in the direction her boyfriend had previously gone. Thaila shrugs, "It's partly true, lots can happen in eight minutes, Annie. You know like, birth." She rolled her eyes, "Plus, his ego needs to get knocked down a few pegs anyway. No one likes arrogant Jason."

Thalia looks down and picks at her nails and Annabeth took the time to study her odd friend.

It always stumped her at how opposite the twins were, Thalia's bold, "I don't care" attitude and Gothic tendencies were so different compared to Jason and his carefree, laid back way of life. They were were almost totally different when it came to the physical things too. Jason stood at almost six feet tall while Thalia... well she's barely grazing the five foot mark.

She would think that they should at least have similar looks, but no. Thaila's dark hair and pale features are in complete contrast to Jason's platinum hair and tan skin. The only thing they have in common is their eyes, it's the only thing remotely "twin-like" about them.

Annabeth realized she had been staring off into space for a while when Thalia finally started talking. "Where were you this morning? Me and Jace tried to find you all morning, chick." For once Thalia's electrifying eyes were serious.

"I got here during 2nd, I must have overslept or my shower time needs to be cut dramatically," she tried to make a joke, but it didn't appear that Thalia thought it was funny. "Did you have the dream again?" Annabeth bit her lip, she had and it had been coming to her a lot more often than before, but she wasn't about to let her overprotective best friend know that. "I don't know, I never remember them, they could just all be different and have nothing to do with each other," she lied. The older girl eyed her, she always knew when she was lying, but she quickly dismissed it shaking her head. "How's it at home then? Athena got that stick out her ass yet?" Annabeth laughed shaking her head, "Nope, nothing's changed, it's still wedged up in there." Annabeth hesitates, "Since we're on the subject, what about you, how's your mom been Thals? I haven't seen her since summer and Jason doesn't talk much about her anymore." Thalia was shaking her head before she even finished, "She's fine, well the same I guess," she shrugged and managed a small smile, a clear sign to close the subject, for now.

"Ok now lets stop all this heavy stuff, I wanna do something fun," Annabeth said hoping to thaw the awkward silence, "You have free period with me, we can go get out and do something!" She briefly thought about the fact that she hadn't even been at school for an hour yet and she was already wanting to leave. Thalia eyed her, "How do you know i have free period?" Annabeth shrugged, "I stole your schedule." She watched as Thalia's eyes got big, "Wow Annie you are learning from me!" Thalia smiled a warm smile and slapped her friends shoulder, Annabeth just grimaced, "Don't call me Annie."

"Come on Jace gets to call you Anna, why not me. Plus, it's funny." She continued to glare, "My point exactly, Jason uses it as a term of endearment, Thals and you just do it to make me mad." Thalia just rolled her eyes as they start walking around the corner.

Turning, Annabeth's eyes caught something across the hall, but that was just when Thalia decided it was a good time to start talking. "If you wanna go do something we could go get lunch, I mean I know its still like 9, but I'm hungry anyway, well I'm always hungry you know that-," Annabeth stopped her rambling. "Shhh." Thalia paused, "But-," "Food later, Thals who's that?" She pointed accross the hall where against the lockers sat the mysterious boy who had fallen asleep next to her in their last class. Thalia sent her a teasing smile, "You think he's hot don't you?" Annabeth blushes and stammers, "I- of course not Thalia, I have your brother for that, did you forget about him that fast?" Thalia started making loud exaggerated gagging noises getting attention from the surrounding people, "Gross Annie," she held up a hand before Annabeth could object, "Of course I didn't forget my dear brother, I just think it's fine if you admire others. From a distance of course."

"Is Nico okay with that?" Annabeth says pointedly. "What Nico doesn't know wont kill him. Now if I was being completly honest with you, which I am, I could tell you that that thing over there is one hot hunk of boy." She said with a shrug. "Thalia!" She pushed her shoulder playfully, "I just want to know his name."

"When you tell me why, I will give up the goods." Annabeth sighed, "He's just in my class," she said as she started watching him. He was leaning against the wall tossing a small object up and down in the air. Annabeth realized she had been staring for a while, when he seemed to feel eyes on him and looked their way. Annabeth was too far away to really see his face, but she could have sworn she saw his facial expression drop even lower than it was before when he spotted them. Turning hastily back to Thalia she tried to stop her cheeks from coloring, "Thalia just tell me, what's his name?" She asked with exaggerated annoyance. Thalia seemed to sense her agitation so she gave in, "Fine, I know him, he's a friend of Nico's, they hang out from time to time and I've met him once, he's bad news." Annabeth raised an eyebrow as she kept her eyes trained on the trouble maker. "Wow Thals, coming from you, he must be atrocious." She says distractedly. "I'm just warning you Annie." "What's his name Thalia! Stop stalling!" Thalia sighs, "His name's Percy... Percy Jackson."

**~TUTU**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi guys, i'm back. For those who are reading i know it's been a while, but i'm back! **

**This is the 3rd chapter, it's a little bit longer and it took me a while to finish, but it's here.**

**There might be some slight errors and if i find them i will fix them, but if you catch some please tell me.**

**I realize that the major characters in the story will be OOC and i'm sorry if you don't like that, but i wanted to add some pizazz to it if you know what i mean ;) **

**Last thing: These books, the characters, and everything in them belong to the oh so wonderful... Rick Riordan *applause*.**

**OH AND REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW :D!**

Stepping out into the cold stark air, Annabeth grabbed the sweatshirt wrapped around her and pulled it closer to her shivering body. Her hair was dripping a trail of water down her back and uncontrollably swirling around her face from the wind. Why today, why now? She just wanted it to be a normal year, she deserved normal, didn't she? But when shit already starts to hit the fan on the very first day of school, that's a pretty good indication that you're screwed.

She told Thalia not to do it.

She was warned about what would happen.

Thalia didn't listen, as usual.

Annabeth turned as students were being pushed out of the school in groups by the firemen filing, each one more saturated than the first. They were pushing and shoving past everyone to get out; the slightly blue-ish fog following closely behind them. She watched as some of the girls waddled out looking like half drowned cats, their flip-flops making odd noises against the concrete pavement. She could feel the anger radiating off of them with an equal force, their eyes staring daggers at her. Annabeth just rolled her eyes, they cared way too much about their looks, the good soaking they just got was making them look better anyway.

A group of boys, who could have been confused as members of the Blue Man Group, came around and stood a few feet away from her. They must have been in her class at the time of the incident, because they were just as covered in the colored smoke as she was.

"I swear, chicks these days," Murmurs Smurf 1, "They will do anything for attention."

Smurf 2 gazed at him in confusion,

"What you mean?" Annabeth could bet that his head was about as vacant as the look on his face at that moment. "The Bimbo and The Goth did it on purpose, girls do those kinds of things for attention. No wonder Jason's with her." Annabeth cringed, sure part of it was her fault -mostly Thalia's, but they, especially had no right to call her that, she probably had more intelligence in her pinky nail alone then the three of them combined.

She shook her head and started to walk away, she just needed to go find Thalia and leave. Their day was already over. Pushing past people, Annabeth entered the school once again and was greeted with a cloud of her foul smelling accident. She pinched her nose as she made her way to the back of the school towards the principal's office. That was most likely where Thalia would be. As soon as the principal got on the loud speaker instructing us to exit the school in an "orderly fashion", Thalia was dragged away like a prisoner to some unknown location. Knowing Thalia she took the fall for the whole thing, even though Annabeth told her not to.

Lesson #1: Thaila never listens.

Annabeth looked around as she weaved in and out of the hallways, they were going to be in lots of trouble. The foggy blue smoke had started bleeding in with the cheap off-white paint the walls had previously been painted and had started creating a dirty teal color on every inch of the building's interior. She'd always felt that the school needed a makeover, but she was pretty sure this wasn't the best way to do it.

She sighed as she walked into the dark office, mumbled a silent hello to the lady at the front desk and sat down on one of the uncomfortable stools in the front. She would have to wait there until they were done interrogating Thalia, but after that, she was getting the hell out and going home because by now her mother had probably already been contacted about the "incident".

_*flashback*_

_"See, i told you," Thalia started as she finished chewing the last last bite of her burrito, "Taco Bell is always the way to go, i would marry that place if it was legal and everything." Annabeth snorted, "Since when do you care about the legality of anything?" She rolled her eyes, "Shut-up with your big words and let me marry Taco Bell," Thalia said as she leaned her head against the driver's side window. Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Yeah, and i'll watch you waste away 'til you're 40, own 73 cats and can't even fit through the doorway." Annabeth mumbled as she fished for a tomato lost in her shirt. Thalia raised her drink and bumped it with Annabeth's in a toast, "Well then, here here, to elderlies and overly large cat ladies!" She exclaimed with a cheeky smile. "So chick, what are you going to be doing in the next..." -Thalia glances at her watch- "10 minutes." Annabeth grinned, "I'll be with you Thals, we've got science next, I think." The punk girl yawned and ran a hand through her dark hair, "Yeah well i'll see you then 'cuz i gotta piss." Annabeth cringed, "Don't say piss it's-." "Whatever," Thalia cut her off while climbing out of the car. She leaned in, reached over and pat Annabeth's head affectionately, "See you later Annie." She skipped back to the entrance of the school._

_Annabeth stared out of the window and sighed. Today hadn't become unbearable, but she wasn't very enthusiastic about going back in yet. The day had practically just started for her and it was only 4th period, she still had a little longer to go._

_She sat there and gazed through the frost covered window, deep in thought when something caught her attention. To left of the school building there was a old park that used to belong to apartment building next to it. The park had started deteriorating and rusting from the lack of use and was now getting ready to be removed. There were already construction workers on site and they looked like they would start at any moment. Annabeth remembered that park, she used to play on it when she was little. She would go there every weekend with her father, they would swing and play on the monkey bars and go up and down the slides... those were happier times. Now it's being torn down and nobody seemed to know or care. Hell, she had no clue anything was happening up until now._

_Not many things in her life were ever constant, never permanent and this was just a reminder. Annabeth had never really thought about that park until now, it just never crossed her mind. Its funny how that happens, you never really pay much attention to things while they're here, but when it's time for them to go you wish you could have done things differently instead of taking them for granted._

_But she could think about all of this later, it wasn't the time or place for melancholy thoughts. She still had to get through the day in one piece._

_Annabeth had started backing up her books and things in her bag when a fist shot out and slammed against the window._

_*End of flashback*_

"Annabeth... Annabeth... Annabeth!"

Annabeth shot up with narrowed eyes to someone shaking her, only to be met with the bright blue eyes of her bestfriend. "Jesus, Annabeth get the hell up! We need to leave before they start looking for you." She rolled her tired eyes and stood

up to stretch her back, she had been sitting down for a while. Thalia had started shuffling around, gathering Annabeth's things and throwing them into her backpack, "Don't be so dramatic, i just fell asleep. Where were you?" She leaned down to touch her toes. "Principal's office. Interrogation. We need to go." Annabeth shot her a puzzled look, "They're done with you so why are you trying to rush me?" She wined as she snatched the book Thalia was trying to shove in her bag away from her. "'Cuz they want to talk to you now and I don't feel like staying here any longer than i have to. Okay, all your stuff is in your bag c'mon." Thalia grabbed Annabeth's hand and pulled her through the door.

_Annabeth screamed and reached for the switchblade she knew Thalia hid under the drivers seat in her car and held it in front of herself. She was ready to shank anybody at this point. The door swung open and she took her chance to lunge. "Whoa whoa! What the hell are you doing?" She peeked around the door and sighed at the dark haired figure in front of her, "Damn you, you almost gave me a heart attack!" The emo boy just laughed as if that was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. "Well well Braniac. That's twice today I hear, maybe you should start paying more attention to your surroundings." Annabeth just stared, "Jason?" She asks bluntly. Nico shrugs, "Of course. Why are you in Thalia's car?" She points to the stray piece of lettuce on the dashboard with a raised eyebrow. He nods, "Taco Bell? Got it. How's your first day been?" He knit his dark eyebrows together and stared her down. Annabeth laughed out loud, "Fine before you decided to pop up on me like a lunatic." He shook his head, "Well maybe you should be a little more prepared in the future 'cuz this," he held up the discarded switchblade, "is not gonna get you anywhere. But seriously, how are you doing?" "Nico thank you, really, but you're crazy, worst than Thalia actually. Don't worry about me, I'm fine. I haven't had a mental breakdown yet." He nods, "Good, call me if you need anything. Wait, where did she go?"_

_"Bathroom." He smiles, "Thanks Braniac. I'm not sorry for scaring you."_

_He winks and leaves. She stared at the back of him as he walked away, he and Thalia were too much alike for their own good and one Thalia alone was enough for an entire lifetime._

_Annabeth sighed as she gathered her things knowing 5th period would start any moment now and she needed to get back inside before she froze to death._

"So what did they talk to you about?" Annabeth started out of breath, as she tried to keep up with Thalia. "Nothing really. Just how i was being "reckless" and "a danger to others", turns out they just wanted me to pay for the damage and they needed an excuse to keep me in there for 4 hours." Annabeth's heart starts pounding, "I was asleep for four hours? That's it, my mom is going to kill me. I. Am. Dead." Thaila sighs, "She wont, if she does then she will have to face me." She rolled her eyes, "For what it's worth, i'm glad I had the satisfaction of embarrassing our fellow classmates before my time is over." Thalia laughed, "Ha! Did you see their faces? They looked like they wanted to kill us."

"They did want to kill us, there was no question there." There was a brief silence before them. "Hey Thals," Annabeth started thoughtfully while she skimmed the walls, "What exactly do they want you to pay for? Like the walls and the paint or the lockers and-." She was interrupted by Thalia's call, "Annabeth move!" But it was too late she face-planted straight into the wall.

Except it wasn't a wall. It was a person, a very angry person now.

Hands shot out to stabilize her before she fell on floor and a harsh voice spoke down to her, "What the hell. Watch where you're going!" Annabeth backed up and pinched her nose. Looking up at the stranger she squinted even harder.

It was Percy Jackson.

And he was shirtless.

And wet.

And boy was he attractive.

But that didn't matter, he was still an ass.

Annabeth scoffed and looked him in the eye, "Well _excuse_ me Mr. Dickhead, but maybe if you were paying attention you would have seen me walking." She hears Thalia choking back a laugh. Percy narrows his darkening eyes, "I'm not sure if you know who you think you're talking to, but i suggest, for your sake, that you reel it in real quick." She glared, how dare he, she didn't do anything wrong and he was being a total and complete ass hat. "What the hell is your problem, dude? I bumped into you, on accident might i add, and you're acting like i killed your God damn cat! So back the fuck up man 'cuz i'm not in the mood." He chuckled darkly, "And you think i am? You think i wanna deal with you?" He jabs his finger at the two of them, "Haven't the two of you done enough shit today?" Thalia crossed her arms next to Annabeth and narrowed her eyes as she continued confused, "What are you talking about?" Percy's narrowed eyes turned playful and gave her a smirk, "Don't act dumb i was in class when your fart bomb went off, everyone knows it was you. You would think you had enough brain cells to pull a prank, well, you know, not in front of the entire school." Annabeth froze and narrowed her eyes hoping that she looked as intimidating as she felt, "That was accident and everyone knows it and do you think you could refrain from making comments concerning my brain cells when you clearly haven't had all of your since the _first_ time you were dropped as a baby." Annabeth mentally patted herself on the back for that one when Thalia chuckled behind her. Percy smiled menacingly and tugged on one of her curls, "I _would_ tell you to shut your mouth, but you know what they say about blonds. Can't keep their mouths closed, can't stop what goes in them," he said with a wink.

Annabeth saw red. She felt her entire body warm up with heat and her muscles tense up with adrenaline. The last thing she heard was Thalia's enraged gasp before she lunged.

At his face.

_Walking into the classroom, Annabeth was met with the stares of her classmates and her teacher. They looked like they had been here for a while. The teacher narrowed her eyes and looked down at the clipboard in her hands. "Ms. Chase, you are 2 minutes late on the very first day of school. What do you think that says about you and how the rest of this year will go?" Annabeth felt her eyes widen slightly, oh she was that kind of teacher. She opened her mouth, ready to apologize when the teacher cut her off. "That question was not rhetorical Ms. Chase, I don't want a response just go find an empty lab table and start your work," she said with a flick of her hand. Annabeth almost rolled her eyes, but looked across the room for a seat. She spotted one next to a girl with large curly hair. She tried to sit down as gently as possible so she wouldn't attract the girl's attention, but the odds are never in her favor. The girl looked up startled, "Oh, hi." She said nicely, her voice trailing off. Annabeth shot her an apologetic look,"I'm sorry, there was no where else to sit," she said as she started gathering her things to leave. The girls hand shot out and grabbed her arm, "No, don't. I was just a little frazzled, i'm sorry. You can sit here and help me with our assignment, it's quite hard actually. Oh wait, only help if you want, it's fine if you don't know the material though. I wouldn'__t wanna make you do stuff you don't want to," she held out her hand, "I'm Calypso by the way." She finished on a single breath. Annabeth felt her jaw slacken slightly as she gripped the hyper girl's hand, "Annabeth chase." Calypso nods, "I'm acting strange aren't I? I've had to much coffee and my caffeine levels are just through the roof. Trust me i'll be normal in a few days. Being a senior will take some getting used to and now, its quite stressful." Annabeth nodded, she understood her completely, well not any of the other crazy stuff she was saying, but she knew how hard it was to change everything and start over every year, stressful indeed. Calypso cleared her throat as she looked around the table at the papers scattered around her and looked back up at Annabeth, her bronze hair flailing around her like a hurricane. She sighed, "Okay. Lets do this."_

_After about 5 minutes of explanation from Calypso, Annabeth finally got it. She stared through her microscope hoping to find the squishy pink mass she would have to use later and mix with whatever Calypso found. Annabeth grabbed her tongs ready to grab the specimen and make sure she was still so she wouldn't drop it when the chair next to her shifted and something brushed her arm. Annabeth froze, "Ah. Nothing like spending all your time looking at odd misshapen blobs of chemicals in their natural habitat," she started. Annabeth sighed without bothering to look up, "Are you using your impressive "big-girl" words for my benefit, or do you just like feeling smarter?" She heard Thalia sigh, "I'm not really sure." Annabeth looked up at her friend who had a withering look plasterd on her face, "Where are you sitting? I tried looking for you, but there was only one seat anyway." That was a lie, but she figured it was why her friend was in a crappy mood. Thalia pointed to the other side of the room with her thumb, rolling her eyes. When she didnt say anything else Annabeth figured she'd better talk, "Who are you doing the project with?" She asked as Thalia reached across her to grab the slide under the microscope. "I wonder what happens to this in water," she said completly ignoring her question. Annabeth shook her head, "Thats not what we're doing, we mix the two blobs together." Thalia shrugged, "Please, we dont need all of it." She looked over at Annabeth with bright eyes, "It would cheer me up..." Annabeth sighed, Thalia always did this. Tried to inflict pity on her so she would do what she wanted, but Annabeth knew, she probably wasnt even mad, just sleepy or tired. Thalia frequently confused the two._

_"No Thals, stop it. If you don't want to do it and get a bad grade, that's all on you, but i'm not." She briefly saw a flicker of a frown when Calypso tapped her shoulder, "I'm sorry to interupt, i just wanted to tell you that my half of the project is done. Is that yours?" She asked as she pointed to the microscope slide in Thalia's fingers. Thalia answered for her, "Yup, we're droppin' this sucker in some water!" Thalia reached for her backpack, "We need that we aren't throwing it away just for you to-," she got cut off. "Ooh look even better," Annabeth watched as the most stubborn girl in the world pulled out a bottle of Dr. Pepper. She opened her mouth to yell at her friend for being so selfish and hard-headed when someone cut her off once again. Calypso's voice was soft and strained as Thalia popped the cap off, "You really shouldnt do that. I've done some research a while back and i believe that the chemical we are working with is very reactive, especially with oxygen based liquids and soda is filled with carbonation so-," Thalia cupped her hand over Calypso's mouth smothering her words, "You both need to lighten up a bit, what's the worse that can happen."_

_And she dropped the blob into the soda._

_There was dead slience._

_"Oh my gosh! Thalia i swear i'm gonna kill you! That was half of our work just down the drain!" Thalia laughed, "Down the bottle to be specific." She said with a wink. She looked over and saw Annabeth's glare and her smiled drooped, "Dude, you need to calm down, look," she pointed at the bottle, "nothing even happened."_

_And then it exploded._

_She heard her teachers screech as the blue smog rushed out of the bottle that lay cracked open and discarded on the ground. The smog surrounded them first and Thalia tried and failed miserably to swat it away like a fly, "Oh my God it smells like rotten ass!" Annabeth glared as yhe classroom filled up with smoke, "Thank you Thalia, because we really needed to hear that right now. Especially from you!" Annabeth screamed as she tried to push Calpso's thin frame out of the line of blue._

_A few seconds later the sprinklers came on and all the classrooms were momentarily filled with the cries of soaked girls._

_"Out out! Everybody out! This stuff could be deadly so mive faster!" Blared the principal as he made his way through the classrooms pushing students in the direction of the doors. "You!" He yelled as he jabbed a finger in Annabeth's face, "Young lady your coming with me!" Annabeth felt the blood drain from her face, he thought she did it. Oh she was in so much trouble. Thalia stepped in front of her with a bored look on her face, "Oh stop it with your cliché threats, it was me, i did it." Annabeth shook her head, Thalia was always in enough trouble as it is, she didnt need more on her plate. "No, it was-," Thalia held her hand up and murmured in her hear, "Shut up, i did it, i'm taking the blame." Annabeth sighed, "No Thalia its your first day of school." Thaila turned and looked her in the eye, "It's yours too. Have fun." She said as she turned towards the principal who's head looked like a tomato as he looked at the damage to the walls. "C'mon old man. Take me to your chambers," Thalia said as she walked passed the principal to the office she had been to so many times before._

**Thanks for reading and please please review! **

**~ Tutu**


	4. Chapter 4

**HEY GUYS! Okay I'm awful I know. I was honestly thinking about just giving up this story and starting a new one that you guys would find more interesting, but i realized that I was only 3 chapters in and i shouldn't expect anything more than what I'm getting. So i decided to make this story for me and not just for you guys because i feel like if it was just for fans than i really wouldn't connect with it the way i want to. I want to write because i like it, not for popularity and I'm glad i have figured that out. This chapter is kinda short, but i feel like it gives you some insight on Annabeth's personal life that you needed or was maybe wondering about.**

**Soooo once again, these wonderful characters and ALL things Percy Jackson... belong to the oh so wonderful... *drum roll* Rick Riordan**

**Thank you for reading and pleeeaase REVIEW!**

Annabeth climbed the steps to her department as slow as physically possible. She really didn't want to face her mother or the devil spawns anytime in the near future, but seeing as she was already half way up the steps, greeting them was becoming inevitable. She tried to prolong it as much as she possibly could and saw her opportunity when her elderly neighbor, Ms. Singer, asked for help with her groceries. Ms. S was a feisty little thing, so she figured a conversation with her would be quite interesting. She soon figured out that there were only so many topics a 95 year old would cooperate with.

World Peace? No, apparently the world is already too corrupted by our generation to change that.

Global Warming? Absolutely not, she thinks it's just a bunch of "freaky scientist shit".

And when Annabeth brought up the growing topic of selfies, she was promptly kicked out with not many options but to go home.

Stopping in front of the apartment door, Annabeth sighed deeply as she stared at the peeling grey paint on the wall as if it could help her somehow. But after several minutes she soon realized that she probably looked like a crazy person and had most likely been out there longer than what's considered normal. She unlocked the door and peeked around the crack to scan the apartment with scrupulous eyes. No sign of life, good. Before anyone could jump out of nowhere she took off towards the stairs and to her room. Annabeth instinctively locked the door behind her as she shook off the sweatshirt and threw it on the growing pile of clothes accumulating in front of her door. She walked over to her mirror and winced at her reflection. Her hair was all over the place and going in every direction seeing as it had dried in that state of distress. While Thalia tried to pry her off of a stunned Percy -after she had gotten in some good hits of course-, she had had to tug on her locks to get her to back off and walk away. Not before she turned and flipped him double birds. While they were walking home Thalia offered to come and keep Annabeth company ,but she told her no. Thalia had better things to do than being in the presence of her overbearing mother anymore than she had to.

She gave up on her hair deciding it would be better to just deal with it later. Annabeth walked over to her bed, climbed to the top bunk and threw herself down on the loud mattress. She looked up at the posters she had placed on the ceiling years before. Long ago she would climb up here to hide from her mom and dad and just get away from life for a little when her adolescent brain just couldn't take much anymore. She hadn't been up here in a while, she noticed as she fingered the light blanket of dust covering the old sheets. She had a feeling she would need to escape to her thinking place after today. Not that it had been _that _bad it was quite exciting actually and it was definitely not what the usual for her. But... she wasn't looking forward to hearing what her mother would have to say about it. The school was always on top of things when it came to busting students for their insubordination. They probably had her mom on speed dial.

She had just closed her eyes when she heard the front door slam and the sounds of small feet stomping all about. Above all the noise she could hear the sharp rapping of heels moving with a purpose. That was the thing about her mother, she always did things with a purpose or she didn't do it at all. She was a very no nonsense type of woman. The sound of heels were getting closer and seeing as Annabeth was entirely too tense to fake sleep, she figured she might as well find her mom before she found Annabeth therefore preventing any unnecessary irritation. She started to slowly climb down the small ladder when she knob of her door jiggled loudly. She cursed under her breath as she jumped to the ground and threw the door open before it could fly off the hinges from the unceasing tugging. She looked up at the woman before her and studied her face. Her curly blonde locks bordering on wild framed her face perfectly, her high cheekbones were slightly flushed, her plump bottom lip slightly smashed by the smaller top one. Last she gazed into her bright eyes the color of nickel and narrow to the max. Her mother was pretty, beautiful, maybe even gorgeous, but no one could know that from her constant state of anger and frustration that seemed to taint all of her attributes. She hadn't seen her mother truly smile in such a long time that she stopped trying to conjure up what it would look like and tried to block out her face altogether, well as much as she could. It was kind of hard to do that seeing as Annabeth saw her mother every time she looked into the mirror.

They weren't exactly twins, but only because of the age difference, Annabeth got nothing from her father. Genes whys that is.

"Annabeth!" She flinched at her mother's tone as she snapped her out of her thoughts. "Have you been listening to a word I've said? I told you to stop locking your door for this reason exactly. I stood here for ages trying to get your attention," she huffed with narrowed eyes. Annabeth rolled her own, "You were waiting for 5 seconds tops." She said as she crossed her arms and walked back to her her bed. "What were you doing in here?" Her mom said ignoring Annabeth's last words as she walked into her room and looked around like she would rather be any place other than there. "Staring at the ceiling," she said with a sarcastic note in her voice. The older woman sighed already exasperated, "Sure you were. I don't care if you had someone in this room Annabeth just be responsible. Come down stairs i brought take out." Her heels clicked as she walked out of the room and down the stairs. Not even a 'how was your day' or a 'how are you'. That was just how it is in the Chase household.

Annabeth stayed in the bed for a few more minutes in defiance, but soon got up muttering curses under her breath. Her mother did this all the time. Treated her as if she was whoring around all the time as she probably did in her younger days. It wasn't like she didn't know about Jason. They had been dating for some time now and he had been around her mother for even longer. It was just the fact that Athena had a tendency to discard things that she didn't like, unfortunately Jason was one of those things. Thalia was too, but at least that was mutual.

Snapping back into reality Annabeth realized someone had been talking to her. That had been happening a lot today, her dozing off into God knows where.

It was one of the devils, Mathew. He was tugging on her dress. "...blue. Did you know throw up could be blue? Bobby said he didn't eat anything blue, but i don't believe him. How else does..." Annabeth's eyes grew big, "Your brother threw up? Where is he?" Bobby popped up behind Mathew their grins identical. "I'm here. Throwing up at school is awesome you get to go to skip class and go home early!"

"And since mom was there she picked me up early too!" His twin added. "That's cool. Did you guys pick..." She asked before their attention spans wore out, but it was too late and they were already running to their rooms. Her mom spoke up agitated, "I had to leave work early for that and he wont even tell me what he ate. I swear military school is around the corner." Annabeth stared. She couldn't tell if she was serious or not and she didn't want to find out. "They're 6 mom. And you're already talking about military school. I wonder how i made it this far then." Athena looked back down at the stack of papers on the kitchen counter and mumbled so quietly that Annabeh could barely hear, "It's not too late."

Annabeth rolled her eyes and called the boys back down while making them a plate and then herself one.

They ate in complete silence except for the sounds of silverware scraping plates. Their dinners could be so boring sometimes she wished Thalia or Jason could be there. Thalia offered to go home with her, but she told her no. Thalia had enough stuff going on that she didn't need to add Annabeth's overbearing mother to the list. Jason was probable available as soon as she said the words, but she didn't like how her mother treated him or how she made him feel like an outsider. After dinner she said good night to thing 1 &amp; 2, nodded to her mother and went upstairs. She still had about an hour or two left before she needed to start her homework so she decided to text Thalia.

You up?

nope

Wyd

date nite

With Nico?

no. with voldemort

Really Thals? I didn't know you

went for that type of thing... Sounds kinky.

bite me

Oh trust me. I bet Nico will.

why have i not shanked you yet?

Okay okay. Tell Nico i said 'hi' and have fun. (:

peace :

Annabeth sighed into her pillow and decided to call Jason.

He picked up after 5 rings breathless, "Hey Anna, what's up?"

She sighed and flipped over on her back. "Nothing i just wanted to hear your voice. I didn't get to see you a lot after that whole smoke fiasco."

He laughed, "Yeah I'm sorry I couldn't find you. Thalia told how long you waited and i feel really bad."

"Don't. It's not your fault and plus, i got to take a long nap."

Jason growled, "Yeah i heard about that and what happened afterwards. Seriously Annabeth! You jumped on Percy Jackson? Do you know how stupid that was you could've gotten hurt!" He said, angry now.

Well Annabeth felt herself getting angry too,

"Don't get mad at me! I defended myself and blondes around the world and I'm proud. And he wasn't going to hurt me Thalia pulled me down before he even realized what happened."

"He could tell people what happened Anna. They're security cameras everywhere in that place so you couldn't deny it. You could get suspended."

She rolled her eyes, He wouldn't tell on me."

"How do you know?" Jason challenged? "You just met him today and I'm not even sure 'met' is the right word considering the only words you guys spoke led to you jumping him!" He said his voice getting louder and louder.

"He wouldn't tell. I just know." She said calmly

Jason huffed, "Whatever. What did he say to make you so mad anyway?"

She chewed her top lip and thought about whether she should tell him. "That bad huh?" He interrupted. Apparently she was silent for a while.

"You might not think so, but i found it offensive."

"If you thought it was offensive then I think it will be offensive. We're pretty much the same person Anna you should know this by now," she heard his smile over the phone.

"He just made some suggestive comments about blondes and their inability to keep their mouths closed..." She trailed off hoping he would catch on. He didn't.

"That's it?" He asked trying not to sound insensitive.

She sighed loudly, "It wasn't just the talking aspect of it, Jason."

She almost giggled as she heard his quiet 'oh' over the other line.

He cleared his throat awkwardly, "Okay. You were within reason."

She laughed, "And if I wasn't would you have actually told me?"

"No. I value my life, thanks."

She laughed harder, "You're making me sound like Thals!"

"You guys are practically joined at the hip anyway."

Annabeth sighed once more and enjoyed the more positive tone the conversation had taken. But he just had to ruin it.

"Listen baby," he cleared his throat and she heard him scratch his temple. A sign of him being uncomfortable. "Can you stay away from Jackson please. I know you have classes with him, but outside of that..." He trailed off not knowing what to say.

Annabeth smiled as she heard the care in his voice, "Okay. I'll stay away from the bug bad boy," she joked.

Jason sighed, "Good. Okay i have to go. Goodnight.

"Nighties," she whispered

"Oh and Annabeth? I love you. So much, don't forget that."

Annabeth smile almost hurt it was so big. "I love you too. I won't forget."

**PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW (:**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hiii guysss. Ok so i had this chapter written for about a month now, but i had been contemplating whether or not to add on more or just save that for the next chapter. So it's finally done and i would like to introduce chapter 5 of Layers...**

**THESE CHARACTERS AND ALL THINGS PERCY JACKSON BELONG TO THE OH SO WONDERFUL... Rick Riordan *applause*.**

**Please give me some feedback ;)**

Annabeth smiled, surprised, when she opened her bedroom door to see Jason standing there in all his glorious glory. She threw her arms around him, his sweet words from the night before ringing in her ear. She realized the enormity of the situation and pulled back abruptly before he could hug her back, "How did you get in here? Did my _mother_ let you in?" She said as disbelief colored her tone. She was almost positive that even in an alternate universe, Athena Chase would never invite her daughter's boyfriend into that said daughters bedroom. Jason laughed, "No Mathew and Bobby answered the door when I knocked," Annabeth groaned, "I'm going to hear about this later." She put her head in her hands as she walked out of the doorway to her bathroom to finish getting ready. "Why are you here anyway," she quickly backtracked hearing how crass it must have sounded, "Not that I don't want you to be here. It's just that why would you purposely subject yourself to my mother's very likely wrath for no reason?" Jason shook his head smiling and walked into the bathroom after her. "Because," he started as he came up behind her to wrap his arms around her middle, "I want to walk you to school today."

"You don't have football practice this morning?" She said confused. He has practice practically every morning and afternoon during the season. He avoided her eyes and looked down at the tube of mascara in her hand, "Yeah actually i do, but coach let me have this one off." Annabeth's eyes narrowed even more than they already were. Coach Hedge was notoriously known for his no nonsense policy on skipping practice. He threatened the students with baseball bats all the time and sometimes even chased them around. So to believe that Hedge just _gave_ Jason the practice off sounded shady. "He just gave you a day to skip practice for no reason? I call shenanigans." She raised an eyebrow and turned back to the mirror as he stuttered to find an explanation. "Um, well.. Itoldhimthatineededtohelpyouthismorning," he said in one breath so Annabeth wouldn't understand. The Gods were not on his side apparently. "Help me with what?" She started incredulously. He sighed and backed away from her ready to plead his case. "I want to make sure Jackson doesn't try anything with you. You know... With what happened yesterday." Annabeth almost laughed, but she figured he wouldn't find that the least bit funny. She walked toward him slowly trying to keep the smile off her face, "Are you marking your territory, Grace?" She asked teasingly. She let a laugh escape when she saw the tips of his ears go red. "No! I'm serious Annabeth. I don't know what he's capable of and I don't want to take any chances." She looked at him, she might have smiled if what he was saying wasn't so stupid. "Jason," she started slowly, " I don't think you know what _I'm_ capable of. I was the one who jumped _him_ remember?" Jason just rolled his eyes, "Anna he's twice your size and weight and you honestly think you could take him...I'm not doubting you," he corrected when he saw her expression, "I just don't trust him and it would make me feel a little better if you walked with me instead of being all alone." He watched as her expression softened, giving him the green light to continue, "I know you don't like relying on someone else to help you for things, but I'm a nurturer and it's what I do." He paused, "Especially for the girls I love," he finished by stepping close to her and kissing her nose. She raised an eyebrow once more, "So there's _more_ than one girl that you love?" Jason just chuckled and pulled her in close, "With the exception of my mom and occasionally Thalia; there is no one but you." She smiled into his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist, "Love you Grace." He held her tighter, "Love you too Chase."

Walking into school together hand and hand, Annabeth felt like flying. It was always like this -on the rare times that this happened- when Jason walked her to school. She felt stronger and braver and bigger than she ever could alone and she liked that. People stopped staring about a month after they had started dating last year, but the trill never went away.

They walked all the way over to her locker and stopped as she got her books out of her bag. "See? Nothing happened he's probably not even here yet and most certainly not looking for me of all people." Jason snorted, "If I wasn't sure you loved me, i would think you were trying to get rid of me." He said leaning against the lockers and crossing his arms. "No. I'm just not seeing the point in this protection detail, but," she started before he could protest, "I appreciate your concern. But!" She stopped him from interrupting once more, "You can't protect me everywhere, we don't have any classes together." Jason shrugged and walked to the other side of her, "You never know. We _did_ only make it to 5th period yesterday. I figured you'd be more aware of that than anybody else," he looked like he was trying to choke back a laugh. She glared, "Hardy har har. You're hilarious." Jason broke out into laugh barks, "What the hell? Are you eighty? No one has said 'hardy har har' since the 1930's." He said backing up into the direction of his first class. She flicked him off, cheeks burning, "Screw you, Grace." He waved and threw a 'love you' over his shoulder as he walked away. Annabeth huffed and shouldered her bag.

She looked down at her schedule to find out that her first period was calculus... Fun. She made it to her class before everyone piled in and chose a seat in the back corner. When the bell rang, she saw someone sit in the seat next to her and look over. It was a girl, a pretty girl, her tanned skin looked Native American, but her rainbow eyes told a different story. Her dark brown locks were cut into a choppy bob, that wouldn't look half as good on anyone else. Annabeth decided to make an effort and smiled.

The girl studied her for a beat then smiled back raising a fist, "I'm Piper." Annabeth raised her hand to return the weird gesture and nod, "I'm Annabeth." Piper's eyes twinkled as she looked down, "Cool name." She paused as if she was going to say something, "Were you here yesterday? I'm pretty sure I didn't see you..." Annabeth shook her, "No. I was late. I got here after 2nd period. Piper nodded slowly, "Skipping class on the first day of school? I think we're going to be great friends, Annabeth." Annabeth let out a laugh and shook her head. "I don't normally skip out on school, I just woke up late." Piper smiled into her notebook, "Accident or not, still awesome."

Annabeth got ready to reply, but the teacher walked in and stopped all discussion until the end of class.

Calculus has never been hard for Annabeth. She had started taking it at the beginning of junior year for dual credit and she had actually come to love it. Piper on the other hand seemed to be cursing all her notes the entire period and Annabeth decided to ask her about that later.

When the bell finally rung, she was putting her things back in her bag when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Turning around she saw Piper sporting a grin and offering a hand to help her up. "We should sit together at lunch," Piper stated. Annabeth couldn't help but smile at her boldness, "Yeah sure. I eat with my boyfriend and his sister." Piper nodded, "Okay i sit with my friend over by the picnic tables by the park. Is that cool?" Annabeth agreed and bid her new friend goodbye as she walked out the door to her 2nd period.

She shouldn't have been surprised when she walked out the door and almost face planted into her boyfriend's chest. Maybe she had some sliver of hope left that he had forgotten about his duties today. He flashed his bright teeth at her already knowing what she was thinking. "Thought I forgot," he placed his hand over his heart and feigned hurt, "I'm walking you to every class and then we are eating lunch together," he told her as he gripped her hand. "I met a girl, her name is Piper and she wanted us to come sit with her and her friend." Jason's hand had tightened slightly at Piper's name and Annabeth looked up to see what was wrong when she caught him glancing at something across the hall. Percy was talking to one of the guys he was tossing the ball with yesterday and was minding his own business. She tugged on Jason's hand firmly and walked in the other direction. "Stop giving him the death glare," she scolded slightly, "He's not doing anything wrong and you're treating him like a damn pariah." Jason looked down at her once more, "Why are you defending him, Anna?" She shrugged, "Because I'm starting to feel bad. He didn't really do anything wrong. I'm 17 years old, practically an adult and I should have had more control over my emotions. I acted like a child and I should be apologizing instead of having you glare at him and protecting me 24/7." She said in one big breath. Jason scratched the back of his neck, "You can't always let your guilt cloud your judgement Annabeth. But if you're serious... Then I'll back down." She was silent as they walked towards her class, but as they got to the door she turned around and muttered 'thank you' before leaning up to press her lips to his in a chaste kiss.

Kissing Jason was always wonderful, she always got a little lightheaded after and the tingle on her lips was still there after hours. She figured it was the same for Jason when he pulled back with that dopey grin on his face. "See you later," she said with one last peck and spun around to enter the partially full classroom and take her stupid seat and the front of the room.

She had already told herself that she would attempt to apologize to Percy when he came in class. He probably didn't deserve it, but she was willing to give it. But when the bell rang and there were still no signs of Percy Annabeth let out the breath she had been holding and started taking notes from the information on the board. After about ten minutes she saw movement by the door from the corner of her eye and glanced up to see the messy mop of hair facing her way.

He was looking at her.

She straightened up as he started walking towards her, but was confused when he suddenly turned and walked towards the teacher's desk morphing his face into a desperate expression. She watched their exchange as the teacher suddenly flashed his eyes from Percy to Annabeth multiple times. After a few more words were spoken the teacher, Mr. Lancaster, cleared his throat and motioned for Annabeth to come over with his hand. Her heart sped up as she slowly rose from her chair and walked over to the kidney shaped desk that surrounded the older man. As she neared, Percy slid over to the other side of the desk timidly. Her eyebrows furrowed as her teacher cleared his throat, "Miss Chase.." he hesitated, "Mr. Jackson has brought to my attention that he is uncomfortable with the seating arrangements and would like a new seat in this class out of fear of you attacking him again as you supposedly did yesterday after school?" He ended with a question as he looked over at Percy to confirm and turned back to Annabeth when he nodded. "He says he is in fear for his safety and would like you to move seats..." He said almost incredulously, "Unless of course you write him a formal apology. And should you refuse to do that, he will have to take this matter to the principal's office where they will be less lenient and you will most likely be forced to move out of this class period."

Annabeth was pretty sure her jaw couldn't open any further it was open so wide. "Are you kidding me? Look at him! It doesn't really look like i could hurt him, much less make _him_ fear _me_!" She said in a shrill whisper. Mr. Lancaster nodded, "So it would seem. But when a student feels threatened whether under unusual circumstances or not, their wishes are obeyed. Assault is a serious accusation." Annabeth huffed and crossed her arms, her face on fire. She silently wished yesterday could had just never even happened.

The teacher raised an eyebrow, "So you aren't going to deny what he's saying?" She tried to bite back a curse as she muttered a 'no' through clenched teeth. The man clasped his hands as an amused grin peeked through his lips, "Good. Okay, Miss Chase you can go back to your seat now. Have that apology by tomorrow." Annabeth nodded and was about to turn around when he then turned toward Percy his face impassive as he asked, "Do you feel comfortable with sitting next to Annabeth for today?" Percy nodded and let out a shy 'I think so' that sounded forced and made his deep voice crack. Mr. Lancaster looked like he was trying to hold back an eye roll at his performance. Annabeth whirled around and practically stomped over to her desk contemplating how much trouble she would get in for tipping it over. She barely heard Percy slide into the seat next to her, she was practically trembling with anger.

She was startled to hear a smooth voice close to her ear. "Now, I'm pretty sure that performance took more than the 'few' brain cells that I supposedly don't possess." She whipped her head around so fast her hair probably looked like a tornado. She looked into his bright eyes and fought hard not to slap the grin right off his handsome face, "Don't fucking talk to me."

He chuckled darkly, "Aw. Are you mad that a teacher_ finally_ knows you aren't perfect?"

"I was going to apologize to you you asstard!" She said ignoring his jibe, "I was going to be the better person and actually apologize to your assholish self! I can't believe I was stupid enough to think you had a amicable bone in your body."

He placed his head in his hands and appeared to be seriously considering what she was saying. He looked at her so earnestly that for a second, she honestly thought that whatever was going to come out of his mouth might not sound as idiotic as he rest of it. But then he started talking... And all hope was lost. "Well, see i helped you out then. Now you can apologize to me, but in paper form. You seem like the type to have the stationary just for this situation." He said with a grin that probably turned girls into puddles of mush, but not Annabeth. "Bite me," she practically growled. He sucked his teeth. "Sorry sweets, I'm taken. But you should be happy to know that you are the first to ever request that i bite them." She narrowed her eyes and forced her iciest glare into them, "I truly feel sorry for the girl that is being forced to put up with your ass, honestly." She felt satisfaction when his eyes darkened slightly. "And for your information, not that it's any of your business, I have a boyfriend that is and will always be better than you." She chuckled slightly when she watched his eyes darken even further to black. "I was wrong about something you know..." He continued without waiting for her to respond, "You aren't dumb. You're not dumb at all actually... Just a bitch."

She feigned hurt putting a hand on her heart, "I try."

He snorted, "Just have that apology tomorrow."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

She sat there staring ahead ignoring everything around her including her teacher and most importantly Mr. Asshattykins. Who kept looking over at her to either glare or snicker.

When the bell finally rang she could barely stay in her seat long enough to make sure Percy was gone and out of her way. She didn't need any extra reasons to slap the prick and she didn't think she would be able to stop herself if he said something else.

Stepping into the hallway she immediately felt Jason come up behind her. "How'd it go?" He said timidly, picking up on her mood quickly. She shook her head and kept walking, "Not right now. Making a scene in the middle of the hallway wouldn't do any of us any good," she said crossly. "At lunch?" He asked and she nodded squeezing his hand as goodbye as she walked into her 3rd period, skipping her locker break.

**PLEASE REVIEW ;D**


	6. Chapter 6

**HI GUYS! Ok so i'm very excited with this update as you can see, because i finished this chapter only 2 days after Chapter 5. (I just had to get all my ideas out). I waited until i was partially done with Chapter 7 before i posted this one so they wouldn't be so far apart just in case the dreaded writers block decided to make an appearance. **

**I really wanted each chapter to take play during an entire school day, but then i realized that that could get pretty boring and that would also mean longer chapters which = longer times between updates. So i shot that one down pretty quickly. **

**THESE CHARACTER AND ALL THINGS PERCY JACKSON BELONG TO THE OH SO WONDERFUL... Rick Riordan *applause*.**

3rd period English went on without a hitch.

And Annabeth considered it a blessing.

She had had enough time to calm down and think the last period over without conjuring up any unnecessary decisions or ideas.

Like telling Jason everything the prick had said.

As much as Annabeth knew she would enjoy her boyfriend walking her to school and doting over her and her safety, it would get tiresome eventually. And telling him about the things the guy who he was supposed to be "protecting" her from, said, wouldn't help. Jason wasn't a particularly violent person, but she was pretty sure he could be if the situation called for some ass kicking. An hour ago, Annabeth would have been elated with the idea, but she decided that it wasn't worth it. _He_ wasn't worth it. So when she walked out of the classroom and met up with Jason, she had a smile on her face.

He grasped her hand and linked their fingers.

"You seem to be in a better mood. Do you still want to tell me what happened?" He asked staring straight ahead.  
She shook her head and sighed, "Not really, but I'm sure you still want to know. We'll talk at lunch so I won't have to explain it to Thalia over again."

She raked her hand through her hair.  
"Speaking of that. You need to go to lunch without me, i need to find your sister to tell her about our lunch plans." He looked down at her and scowled, "I'll get Thalia and bring her. You need to wait here for us."  
She raised her eyebrow and shook her head ready for whatever he threw back. "No I don't and I'm not. I don't need a protection detail to walk my friend to lunch."

Jason just stared probably trying to decide if it was worth the argument, but finally sighed and shook his head after seeing the determination in her eyes.

Annabeth figured he must have silently gave up and smiled with all her teeth as they walked up to her next class. "Good. Okay we're having lunch at the picnic tables by the construction site, kay? Look for Piper if I'm not there by the time you are. She should be there with her friend. Do you know what she looks like?" He shook his head with narrowed eyes. "She's Native American, i think. Or at least she looks like it. She has short brown hair, really pretty." Jason nodded and said nothing, his face pinched and lips pursed like he just bit into an orange peel.  
It was sort of cute.

Annabeth sighed, "Don't get all moody. Thalia will protect me and you know if she found out that you're doubting her fighting abilities she will show you just how good she is," she said with a chuckle.

Jason didn't find it funny.

His face didn't change as he leaned in to kiss Annabeth's forehead, "Just... be careful," he mumbled against her skin. She nodded when he stepped back. "I'll see you later." Annabeth paused, "In one piece in case you were wondering," she teased and turned into the classroom before he had the chance to say something.

Health science has never really been a point of interest for Annabeth, but she sucked it up this year for the credit that she needed to graduate.

She looked around to see that the seat she had the day before was taken, but the one next to it wasn't. She sat down and took out her textbook and pencils and looked around. She jumped when she realized the boy sitting in her previous seat had been staring at her.

She cleared her throat and tucked her hair behind her ear nervously. "Um... hi?" Her tone questioning. The boy smiled and nodded, his brown curls flopping in his face, "I'm Leo." He said eagerly holding out his hand. Annabeth reached out tentatively and shook his hand wincing slightly as she felt his moist palm. "Annabeth," she said nodding.

"Cool. It's my first day." Annabeth raised an eyebrow in question and Leo just shrugged. "It's a tradition. You never see anything exciting on the first day anyway." She snorted but quickly covered it with a cough when he looked at her funny. "I don't think a fart bomb counts as an ordinary day of school," she said chuckling.

Leo's eyes grew wide, "There was a fart bomb? Are you kidding me? I miss all the fun stuff i swear." He said shaking his head. "Who did it? I wanna meet one of the masterminds."

Annabeth chuckled and blushed slightly, "You're look at one of them."

Leo's jaw became unhinged. "You? Seriously?" He asked, almost incredulous.

She didn't know whether or not the be offended because he thought she would be incapable of being cool or flattered because he thought she was better than that. He must have seen something in her face that made him backtrack. "N-not that you couldn't do that or anything because I'm sure you could lay on some serious butt kicking if you needed to. But you don't strike me as a trouble maker."

Annabeth shrugged and silently agreed with him. Half of the trouble she would get into trouble at school was when Thalia was around. "I'm usually not. It wasn't really my fault i was just involved."

"What happened then? Will you tell me?"

Annabeth shrugged. "It wasn't that big of a deal. My friend was playing around with my biology experiment and poured it in some soda. It exploded and made this fog that stunk and turned the walls blue."

Leo looked amazed. "Did the sprinklers go off?" Annabeth nodded and Leo leaned back in his chair sighing. "I really gotta start coming to school more often on the first day." He tugged on his hair and looked back at her, "That sounds epic. Who's your friend? You know, the one with the soda."

"Thalia Grace," she said as the teacher called on her to stop talking effectively setting her face on fire.

She turned away from him and started listening to the teacher drone on when a ball of paper hit her on the arm and rolled off the desk. She looked over at Leo who had his eyes on his book and a smirk on his lips, as she picked up the ball and quietly unraveled the paper.

**_I want to meet this friend. We should talk over lunch after class..._**

Annabeth rolled her eyes and flipped the paper over to write on back.

_Can't, I'm having lunch with Piper and one of her friends. Maybe tomorrow?_

She threw the ball back narrowly missing his head with her bad aim.  
Another message came across in the form of a paper airplane.

**_Piper McClean?_**

She shrugged and threw it back at him.

**_It probably is. I'm not sure if they're are any other Piper's in this school_**

_Well i guess that's her then._

**_I think the Gods meant for us to be friends_**

_Why is that?_

_**Because i happen to be that 'friend' that's going to be at lunch with Beauty Queen**_

_Beauty Queen?_

**_Piper. Use your context clues_**

_*Eye roll* Whatever. __So you're sitting with us?_

**_Actually you're sitting with me_**

_Technicalities._

**_Look at you and your big girl words... this should be fun. Are you bringing your pyro friend_**

_*Eye roll AGAIN* This is her first time blowing something up... She's not a pyro. But yes. Thalia's coming too._

**_;D_**

_Do your work._

Leo threw her another note at her but she didn't read it and stuck it in her backpack instead. She giggled when she heard him huff.

The rest of class went on without a hitch and the bell came quickly after.

She was putting her books away when she turned around to see Leo looking at her expectantly.

"You'll have to go ahead of me. I have to go track down Thalia first." She said slinging her backpack over her shoulder and walking in front of him. "Kay. Picnic tables right?" He asked as they walked out of the room, him going in the opposite direction. She shot him a thumbs up and went to go find Thalia's classroom.

"Why are we sitting with random people when we could be out getting Taco Bell?" Thalia asked they walked down the hall towards the back doors. "Because," Annabeth started, "Piper is cool and Leo is... Leo. And we could really use some more friends." Thalia rolled her eyes and huffed. She didn't enjoy new people. "Bring Nico if you want," she offered hoping that would sway her...Thalia just shrugged. "He's eating lunch with his swimming friends."

"Well... I have some interesting news from second period." Annabeth murmured peeking out the corner of her eye. Thalia's eyes got big. "I totally forgot about that! How'd it go? You know seeing Jackson after you tried to claw is eyes out?" She asked with a wide grin on her face.

They had made it outside and was making their way over to the picnic tables when she answered. "I have to write him an apology."

She caught sight of Jason's blond locks at the table to the far left and felt her brows furrow as she saw him and Piper talking to each other, both with tense looks on their faces.

"You have to what? What do you have to apologize to him for?" Thalia said loudly, pulling Annabeth from her thoughts and her eyes from the table. She looked over at Thalia who looked ready to hurt someone.

"Apologize to who?" She heard Jason ask. She glanced over to see that he had moved to the other side of the table and crossed his legs.

Thalia answered for her, "She has to write an apology for Jackson."

Jason's eyebrows shot up. "Is that why you were mad earlier?"

Annabeth nodded.

"What happened?" Thalia and Jason said together.

Annabeth shrugged, "He told the teacher what i did and it was either an apology or the principal's office where i could get moved out of the class entirely."

"And the teacher actually believed him?" Thalia said appalled.

"Wait wait," Piper interrupted, "Jackson? As in _Percy_ Jackson? That hot hunk of manliness on the swim team, Percy Jackson?"

Annabeth nodded. "Yep. That's the one."

"What did you do to piss him off?"

Ananbeth opened her mouth to answer when Jason cut her off, "Hot? Excuse me he is _not_ hot!" She chuckled and ruffled his hair, "Not as hot as you, baby," she said with a wink.

"Please continue the story and stop flirting with my brother," Thalia yelled.

Annabeth looked back at Piper, "He's mad at me because I jumped on him yesterday."

Piper smirked, "Well I don't see anything wrong with that. I'd jump him too."

"No not that kind of jumping," Annabeth said and giggled at Jason's angry facial expression.

"I went in swinging. It wasn't a necessarily friendly encounter." She explained turning to Piper.

Piper opened her mouth to talk when a voice behind them interrupted. "Dang Annie. First blowing things up, and now i hear you threw some punches too? Somebody was not having a good day yesterday."

They all turned around to see a smiling Leo standing behind them with a huge tray full of food in his arms.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Thalia asked rudely, breaking the silence.

"Thals!" Annabeth gasped and turned around ready to scold her tactless best friend when Leo waved a hand at her dismissively. He reached forward, his hand in a fist, and offered it to the intimidating girl in front of him.

"Leo Valdez. Mechanic in training, champion prankster, Beauty Queen over here's bestie, and the newest member of your fan club."

The table grew quiet and watched as Thalia stared at him for a beat and slowly raised her fist, gingerly bumping her hand with his. "I wasn't aware i still had a fan club after yesterday."

Leo nodded enthusiastically, "Oh especially after yesterday! I wasn't here to see it, but i heard enough from Annie over here to know that it had to be spectacular."

"Do not cal me Annie."

"Tell that to she drenched cheerleaders."

Annabeth and Thalia said at the same time.

"There were cheerleaders too?" The hyper boy asked excitedly, completely ignoring Annabeth.

"Yeah, they looked like drowning cats. They were screeching like ones too."

Leo put down the tray of food in front of Piper and started pulling Thalia in the other direction and asking her for more details.

"So what were you talking about before the nimrod walked over here?" Piper asked, nibbling on her slice of cheese pizza.

Annabeth sighed and pushed her hands under her chin, "Percy told the teacher that I attacked him and he didn't feel comfortable with me sitting next to him until I apologized formally." She said using air quotes. "The teacher even saw threw his bullshit, but since I couldn't deny what he said he had to take Percy's word for it."

Piper shrugged, "Why didn't you just lie? I'm sure the teacher would have picked you over Jackson anyway."

"I couldn't. Do you know how many cameras probably got that on video? Some janitor probably got a kick out of watching me attempt to beat up a guy twice my size."

She rolled her eyes for what felt like the millionth time today. "Percy knew I wouldn't lie so he decided to get a little fun out of it too."

Piper threw down her slice of pizza and smacked Annabeth's arm. "You're giving up that easy?"

"What do you mean?" She asked warily, rubbing her arm.

"I mean," Piper started, her smile getting mischievous, "You can show him who's boss and let him know that he can't treat you like that!"

"And how would i do that?"

Piper stared almost incredulously, "By fucking up that apology. Tell him how you really feel and see what he does about that."

Annabeth sighed, "I can't do that. I'd just get it even more trouble than i already am."

Piper shook her head fast, the barrettes in her hair moving wildly. "He wouldn't tell. Boys and their pride... It's ridiculous."

"No. I can't. I need to be the bigger person. I got myself into this, there's no point in digging myself deeper down."

She saw Jason nod from the corner of her eye, "Yeah, after he gets this stupid apology he'll leave you alone and you won't have to deal with him anymore."

"But seriously Piper, thank you though. If i was half as brave as you seem to be I probably wouldn't have had a problem telling him off. But that's just not me."

The girl in front of her smiled and waved a hand. "Oh I'm a totally pansy. I just thought my false confidence could have helped you out."

Annabeth laughed and reached over to help herself to the slice of pizza on Jason's plate as they started talking about their classes together.

"You need to behave."

"I don't see why, I didn't do anything."

"You set a stink bomb off in the middle of school."

"Most of them deserved it."

"That's not the point."

"I won't do anything else. I have a reputation and a fan club to maintain. If i start pulling pranks everyday, i lose the excitement factor."

"You don't have a fan club Thalia."

"Don't tell that to Valdez."

"Promise me."

"Promise you what?"

"That you won't try anything."

"Fine i won't try anything today."

"Promise!"

"I _promise_ I won't try anything today."

"Don't do anything at all... ever."

"Yeah I'm not agreeing to that."

Annabeth sighed rubbing her temples as her and Thalia took their first steps into biology class. There was no point in trying to convince her friend to try to be good for any long periods of time, so she figured that she should bask in the normality of today while it lasted.

She tried to walk silently and go in without the teacher's notice, but to no avail. "Miss. Chase and Miss. Grace, if you would be so kind as to come to my desk for a minute."

Annabeth blushed when she heard Thalia chuckle behind her and make a b-line for the teacher. She plodded over and stood behind Thalia as if that would help her hide.

The older woman cleared her throat and clasped her hands, "I'm sure i don't need to tell you about how dangerous your behavior was yesterday, I'm sure Principal Griffin has already reprimanded you enough. With that being said, I'm just going to move Thalia across the room next to Mr. Jackson..." She was cut off by the sound of Thalia's obnoxious laughter. "Is there something funny Miss. Grace?"

Thalia held in her laughter, wrapping her arms around her stomach, "No no carry on," she leaned over to look at the ID wrapped around the woman's neck, "Rachel." She said smiling cheekily.

The teacher sputtered, "I-i-it's Miss. Keys to you."

Thalia nudged her side and murmured in her ear, "Not married huh?" Annabeth elbowed her and stepped forward. "What were you saying Miss. Keys?"

She heard someone cough towards the back of the class.

"Thalia will be moving next to Mr. Jackson and Annabeth you will stay put next to Miss. Atlas and a new student will be seated in Miss. Grace's old seat. Any questions? Then go sit down." She snapped before they could respond.

Annabeth turned to find Calypso sitting at the table already, her eyes trained on her. She stiffened up immediately. She never thought about how Calypso would possibly feel about how things went down yesterday.

"Hey," Annabeth started timidly.

Calypso just stared for a few seconds before she started laughing... Loudly.

"Did you *chuckle* really think *chuckle* that I would be mad *chuckle* at you?"

She shrugged and started to laugh herself. "I didn't know if you would be mad or not."

Calypso shook her head and wiped her tears away. "Yesterday was hilarious. I could never get mad about a good prank."

"Well I'm glad. I like you and I'd rather not lose a friend because my other one was being...herself."

She shook her head again, "You won't. And i like you too." She said with a wink.

A loud groan at the front of the room pulled them both from their conversation. Percy Jackson stood at the front of the room, backpack slung over his shoulder as he glared at Thalia from across the room. "Why is she in my seat?" He asked no one in particular. Miss. Keys stood up and pointed to the seat next to Thalia, "Sit in the seat next to that one Mr. Jackson I'm sure you've been in school long enough to know how that works."

Percy just continued to glared at Thalia before looking around the room like he was trying to find another place to sit. His eyes met Calypso's first, but then narrowed instantly as he moved on to Annabeth.

He rolled his eyes and huffed out a 'fine' before sitting down and sliding as far away from Thalia's seat as he could.

"He is such an asshole," Annabeth murmured before she could help herself.

"He really can be sometimes." Calypso agreed.

"Have you had to deal with him a lot?"

"Oh everyday."

"How many classes do you have with him?"

"Just this one," she said flipping her bronze hair over her shoulder.

Annabeth stared, "Then how..?"

Calypso smiled brightly and laughed.

"Because I'm his girlfriend."

**Thanks for reading and please review. ;D  
~ TUTU**


	7. Chapter 7

_Because I'm his girlfriend."_

_Annabeth sputtered._

_"W-w-what?"_

_Calypso smiled at the confused look that was most likely on her face. "I'm his girlfriend. He's my boyfriend. We're dating. Going steady." She shrugged, "Whichever you prefer."_

_"B-But you're so nice and sweet and he's..." Annabeth trailed off not wanted to say something that might offend her._

_"An asshole," She finished for her, "You don't have to sensor yourself I'm well aware."_

_"Then why are you with him? Are you happy?"_

_Calypso chucked, "I'm very happy. And very in love."_

_Annabeth didn't say anything after th"at, afraid that Calypso being short with her was her way of asking her to drop it. She knew she would have if it were her getting asked these questions._

_But then she started talking again._

_"We've been dating since he moved here at the beginning of junior year. And no. He's not as much of an dick to me as he is with other people."_

_Annabeth frowned, "But you did admit that he's still not very nice to other people, why are you with someone like that? Um, if you don't mind me asking."_

_Calypso's smiled dimmed slightly, "Because I know it's all an act...well most of it. He's got a kind heart and means well. You just... have to go down a few_ _layers."_ **(_AN_\- *Wink wink* see what I did there?)**

_"I'm sure he does," Annabeth mumbled under her breath while she studied the paper in front of her._

_She felt a poke in her side and looked up to find Calypso smirking at her. "I heard what you did yesterday," She put up her hand before Annabeth could tell her sorry, "No, I think it was awesome. It's been a while since anyone has put him in his place."_

_Annabeth raised an eyebrow, "Who was the last person?"_

_"Me. Well his mom and I._

_She keeps a constant hold on him," she said chuckling_

_"He's a mamma's boy?" Annabeth said full on laughing and earning a look from the teacher._

_"Very much so, but don't tell him I told you that."_

_Annabeth snorted, "I'm positive I won't be saying much of anything to him anytime in the future."_

_Calypso started talking again as if Annabeth hadn't said anything._

_"He ALSO told me about what he was planning today in 2nd period. And I told him he should go for it."_

_Annabeth felt her jaw drop, "You did what?"_

_He had embarrassed her and made her want to physically hurt someone for the first time in her life. And this sweet, wisp of a girl had basically encouraged him to do it._

_"Yup," Calypso responded unaffected by her stare. "I told him that he should let me have some fun in witnessing the very much deserved karma coming back at him full force when you hand him that kick ass apology that I know you're going to write."_

_"Karma?" Annabeth said stunned._

_"His just desserts."_

_Annabeth's expression quickly morphed into a smile, she was finding herself liking Calypso more than before.  
__So she told her just that._

_"Good because I like you too. And my idiot of a boyfriend is just intimidated by your awesomeness. He'll lighten up eventually. I promise."_

_Annabeth opened her mouth to respond, when the stool next to her squeaked. They turned to see a small girl smiling shyly at them._

_"Hi I'm Cami."_

**_(Dream over)_**

"Annie."

"Annie."

"Annabeth!"

"Annabeth, Mom says if you want dinner then you have to get up."

Annabeth groaned and rolled over, shaking off the hand on her shoulder and feeling papers crumple under her. She looked around until she met the blue eyes of her brother.

"How the hell did I get on the floor?"

Bobby shrugged used to her 'foul language' as her mother would call it.

That's why he was Annabeth's favorite.

"You must have fallen asleep or something while you were working."

She nodded and groaned as she got to her hands and knees and leaned back on her heels.

"What's for dinner? Is it worth coming downstairs for?"

Bobby nodded, "Oh yeah. We haven't had it in a while. It's a rare sight, but mom didn't feel like cooking."

Annabeth felt a smile tug at her lips as she looked at Bobby's matching grin.

"Pizza!" They screamed together and ran downstairs.

After 2 slices of meat lovers goodness, Annabeth went back upstairs to finish up the homework she had been doing before she fell asleep. She finished math, English and reached in her bag to find her psychology homework when her hand brushed the sticky note she had taped to her journal.

She lifted it up to read it and felt her face droop instantly.

'WRITE APOLOGY'.

She sighed and crumpled up the note, hoping that that would make it disappear all together.

After an hour and a half, she was done with all of her work and decided to start on the letter. And just as a 'fuck you' to Percy, she got out her special paper and pens.

She stared at the paper in front of her for about 5 minutes before her hand even touched the pen.

She had so many things she wanted to say to him, but she was afraid he would just tell someone again and get her in even more trouble.

_But_ she also felt like she had an obligation to Piper and Calypso to make this the most kick butt apology to ever be written.

She made her decision pretty quickly.  
And felt a smirk tug at her lips as she started to write.

"Let me see it." Thalia said as soon as she walked through Annabeth's bathroom door the next morning before school.

She looked up from brushing her teeth, scowling at Thalia's bad timing. She spit, rinsed her mouth and stood up. "Thalia, I'm in a towel brushing my teeth. You couldn't have just stayed in my room?" She asked, brushing past her tiny friend to escape inside her closet.

"Yeah, but what's the fun in that?" She was quiet for a minute. "So...?"

Annabeth reached up to grab her blue sweater from the hanger it was on. "So... What?"

She heard Thalia huff and sit on her squeaky bed. "So... Did you write the apology?"

"Yeah I did. I'm not stupid enough to just blow it off."

"Okay, then can I see it? Where is it?" She said excited.

"First section in my bag. It has a sticky note on the front." She said as she came from out of her closet, now dressed.

Thalia was quiet as Annabeth walked over to her mirror and started towel drying her hair. She had just started putting on her makeup when she heard Thalia abruptly yell. "Holy shit!"

Annabeth cursed as her mascara made a line to her ear.

"What is it? Is it that bad?"  
She said cleaning her face and turning around to see Thalia gaping at the colorful paper in her hands.

"You. Are. A. Genius."

Annabeth let out a breath and laughed, "Why?"

"Because this might be the best letter in the history of letters and apologies ever written. Who knew you could have such a nicely worded letter with 'fuck you' in nearly every sentence? Seriously Annie, if I didn't know any better I would think I wrote this."

Annabeth didn't have the heart to correct her about her name. She sounded so happy, you wouldn't think she was talking about something so vulgar.

Annabeth blushed, "You don't think it's too foul do you?"

Thalia sighed and set the paper down on the bed. She crossed her arms and leveled a stare at the blonde in front of her. "No Annabeth. You've got to stop second guessing yourself. You have every right to walk in that class room today and shove this up his ass. You _are_ going to give this to him and you _are_ going to keep your chin held high as you do. Cause chick, you have nothing to be ashamed of. Honestly, you should be proud of this."

Annabeth nodded and walked over to Thalia, grateful for her pep talk. She picked up the paper, put it up and shouldered her bag. "Let's go."

Thalia shouted, "Now _that_ is what I'm talking about!

Auto-bots... roll out."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "We aren't transformers Thals."

"Whatever."

When they made it to school, Annabeth was surprised to see both Jason and Piper, standing by her locker, both smiling her way.

"Hey baby bro," Thalia started, "Hey McClean."

Jason nodded and Piper smiled.

"What are you guys doing here?" Annabeth said, hugging them both.

"We came to give you a pep talk. Not that you need it. We just wanted to tell you that we're glad that you're ending this peacefully."

Thalia snickered, "Well..."

Annabeth talked before Thalia could let anything slip. "I changed my mind. I'm telling him how I really feel about this."

"Yes! I knew you would!" She laughed as Piper gave her a big hug.

She stepped back and felt her smile falter when she saw Jason's expression.

"I don't like this."

Annabeth shrugged, "Yeah well I wasn't planning on telling you until I had already given it to him." She said defensively.

"What? Why?"

She raised an eyebrow, "Because you would react like this."

"Yeah I have every right to react like this. I would have tried to stop you before you got yourself in even more trouble. Don't do this Anna." He whispered harshly.

She saw Piper and Thalia silently leave from the corner of her eye.

"I need to stick up for myself. What? Would you rather I just sat back and let him treat me like shit? Because you and I both know that's not going to happen."

He ran a hand through his hair haphazardly. "I love you Annabeth. I want to protect you. And you doing this isn't helping the situation."

"I met his girlfriend."

"What?"

"I met his girlfriend. Calypso Atlas. She's very sweet and knows that he wouldn't do anything to anyone."  
Now that wasn't exactly 100% true, but she really didn't care at that moment.

"Just because she says something doesn't make it true. She's dating him so she obviously doesn't show his true colors. That or she's secretly just like him. I don't like the guy and anyone who does is stupid."

Annabeth put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes.  
"I'm starting to think this is just a dick measuring contest."

Jason looked flabbergasted, "_Dick _measuring..." He clenched his fists. "This is not a contest! He's not good Annabeth. Why can't you just trust me on this?"  
He said raising his voice, causing the people around them to turn and look.

She stepped closer to him. "I can't trust you on this because you don't know him. That's why. And before you say it, I'm not defending him. I just don't like it when people assume things about other people, especially when they don't know them or the whole truth."

Jason suddenly stood up taller and cleared his throat, looking around him and glaring at the people that were staring. He shrugged, "Whatever. Do what you want 's your ass on the line anyway."

And he turned away from her to walk to his classroom. Leaving Annabeth at her locker gaping at him.

Annabeth sat down loudly in the seat next to Piper and threw her hands over her face.

"It's not your fault. You're blaming yourself already, I can tell." Piper said gently.

"No. You didn't hear us. I feel so bad."

"Actually we did. Thalia suggested that we just hide behind the lockers and listen in just in case she needed to intervene."

She looked up from her hands to see Piper looking at her with a sheepish expression.

"So I'm not a bad person?"

"No you aren't. Jason is just being an ass." She said rolling her eyes.

She shook her head, "No he's not. He just cares."

"I'm sure he does." She heard Piper murmur. But she didn't have it in her to argue with her about Jason's intentions. She knew her boyfriend.

Piper spoke, a little louder this time. "Let's change the subject all that doesn't matter. I was given specific instructions from Thalia and intend to follow them."

Annabeth rolled her eyes and smiled. "What were her instructions?" She asked warily.

Piper smiled brightly and took her hand. "Give you the longest pep talk you've ever heard."

So she did just that. She talked Annabeth's ear off about how awesome she was and that if Leo was there, he'd be telling her the same thing. She talked about how she had a dream yesterday that she got to look at the footage of Annabeth beating Percy up and that she was still laughing after she had woken up. She told her how strong she was and that she couldn't let anything he might say get to her. She told her absolutely everything she possibly could, right up until the bell rang.

Piper gave her a hug when they made it to her classroom and whispered in her ear. "Good luck, but I don't think you're going to need it."

She nodded and walked in with her head high and chin lifted. He shouldn't be there until after the bell rang so she was good...for now.

She sat down and looked at her phone checking to see if Jason had texted her, when a cool voice breathed in her ear,  
"Who's Jason?"

She froze in her spot and tried to calm down her racing heart.  
"My boyfriend."

Percy leaned back to sit in his own chair. "Jason?" He asked, thinking. "Jason Grace? Of course you'd be dating that asshole."

Annabeth felt herself heat up, "Excuse me, I'm not sure what you mean."

He chuckled and ran a hand through his messy hair, "You'll know soon enough...but, from the looks of it you already do."

"What the hell are you talking about?" This kid was confusing.

He shrugged, "Nothing. You just looked like whatever was on your phone had just killed your cat."

Hypocrite.

"You're not one to talk you walk around with a constant RBF all the time."

He raised an eyebrow, "RBF? Help me out, I don't speak girl."

"Resting Bitch Face." She said. Obviously.

He smirked, "So you _have_ been watching me. I don't know if I should be flattered or freaked out."

Annabeth scoffed.

Cocky bastard.

"There's not much to look at."

Lie.

"I would much rather be looking at my boyfriend."

Lie. She was pissed at him at the moment.

"Where's my apology." He asked, completely ignoring what she was saying.

She just stared at him and he shrugged one shoulder, "I'm not one for small talk. Do you have it or not?" He said with a mischievous grin.

She turned around without answering him and reached in her backpack for the paper. She swung back around to him, making sure to slap him with her hair. "Here you go." She said with a smug smile.

He smiled back just brightly. Annabeth would have taken the time to admire how attractive it was if her stomach hadn't immediately fallen to the pit of Tartarus, **(_AN_\- LOL I'm sorry guys I had to)**, he was up to something.

He laughed loudly and threw his head back. "Oh come on. Don't look at me like that. I know you probably talked shit about me in this," he waved the paper around, "I never planned on reading it, just showing it to the teacher and seeing how that goes from there. Detention. Suspension. Possibly even expulsion, but that depends on what kind of threats you wrote to me in this letter." He said shrugging.

She felt like crying. She would get into so much trouble for this. She knew that shouldn't have written it, but she wanted to prove that she was strong and that she couldn't be taken out. Well, she had failed at that seeing as she was about to be exposed to the teacher.

She saw him about to get up and pulled on his jacket to make him sit back down. "What have I done to you. Why do you dislike me so much?"

He let out a harsh chuckle and glared, "Chase, I don't like a lot of people. You shouldn't be surprised that you're on that list. And you can't talk about not being welcoming. It's not like you've been all that excited to make your acquaintances with me."

She snorted in a very un-girly way, but she didn't care at the moment. "You haven't really given me the chance to, now have you?"

"Well that's because I don't want to. You want to know me. You want to be friends with me. But I don't want to be your friend, I don't want to get to know you. Let's just face it," He said with a grin. "You're peeved off because everyone you meet likes you. You make friends easily, you feel like you're a likable person, but I don't have those feelings toward you, quite the opposite really. And you can't deal with that."

And without another word he got up and walked over to the teacher to hand in the letter.

Annabeth was sure her jaw couldn't have dropped any lower if she wanted it to. She almost wanted to laugh out loud at how absurd Percy had sounded. Sure, she already knew he was cocky as hell, but she didn't think it was this bad. He sounded like he believed himself too, like this happens all the time and it was just a big inconvenience for him to even be talking to her. Well bump that. She didn't give a rats ass what he thought. She had only known him for 3 days and he was already jumping to conclusions. She knew he was wrong and she knew how she felt.  
Excuse her for wanting to be the bigger person in all of this.

"Miss. Chase, if you would come here please."

Her heart dropped and she knew she was done for. She figured she might as well say a few prayers now before she was swept away by her mother's furry when she found out about this. Athena would be so pissed about this and it won't be any better when she has to home school Annabeth and quit her job... Okay. Maybe she was getting a little bit too ahead of herself, but you have to weigh all your options.

She trudged up to the desk and looked up to see laughter in the older man's eyes.

He cleared his throat, "I haven't read it yet, I wanted you to be present while I did." She nodded and prepared herself for automatic expulsion as his eyes skimmed over the paper.

When he was done he sighed, "Okay," here we go, she thought, "That was an exceptional job Miss. Chase. Mr. Jackson, I hope you find that reassuring to your safety here at Goode High."

Percy and Annabeth stared at the teacher.

Percy spoke first, "Seriously?" He asked, disbelief coloring his tone. "Are you sure you read it all, Mr..." He trailed off and the teacher answered for him by turning the name tag on his neck around. "Mr. Brunner."

Mr. Brunner clasped his hands together, "Yes son, I read it all. Did you?" He asked mockingly.

Percy shook his head.

"Well then if you had, you would know that Miss. Chase wrote a very good apology ensuring that you would be safe during school and anytime other than that. I really do suggest you read it over. It's written quite nicely too, if I were and English teacher instead of psychology, she would certainly receive an A."

Percy just nodded, confused and went back to his seat while Annabeth and Mr. Brunner looked at each other for sometime.  
"You aren't going to say anything?" She finally asked.

He shrugged and leaned back, "I don't think I need to. The apology was in there and served its purpose. The rest... Well I'm a teacher, I can't say much on that, but I most certainly don't disagree, I've hosted a few detentions courtesy of Mr. Jackson." He said with a chuckle.

"B-but what if he takes it to the principal?"

He shrugged again, "I'm sure he'll see it my way too." He said with a glint in his dark eyes.

Annabeth nodded a little dazed, and went back to her seat to see Percy on his phone.

She sat down and waited for him to say something snarky to her or comment about the paper that had seemed to disappear.

When that didn't happen she took it upon herself to find out. She cleared her throat, "Did you read it?"

"No."

And that was the end of that.

So for the rest of the period, Annabeth took notes from the board and got ready for the project that was coming up while Percy just stared at the board.

When the bell rang Annabeth got up before Percy and found herself walking out with a smile on her face.

Annabeth 1. Percy 0.

"You seriously have the coolest teacher ever," Piper said with a mouth full of chocolate chip cookie.  
They were at lunch all four of them. Thalia, Leo, Piper, and Annabeth. No Jason to be found, but Annabeth would give him the time that he needed to stop being a baby.

"Yeah he is." She said answering Piper. "I honestly thought he was a total hardass. I was prepared for expulsion when he called me to his desk."

"He just thought you were hot," Thalia said after taking a bite from her burger.

"Ew no. Thalia that's gross. He's old."

She shrugged, "That doesn't stop them."

"He really is cool. I think he puts up that front to scare us before he shows his fun side."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow and took a slice of Piper's orange. "You've had Brunner?"

Leo nodded while he pulled out some of his homework, "Yeah, last year I had a free period and needed something to fill it."

"You were a junior with a free period? How many do you have now?"

He shrugged, "Four."

Annabeth gaped.

"Are you like a genius or something?"

Before he could answer Piper did for him, "Yup. He's very humble about that though. He skipped 2 grades."

Annabeth's eyes bugged, "So what. Are you 16?"

He nodded, "Turned 16 a few weeks ago."

"Wow," she leaned back and looked at him. He really didn't look that young. She told him that.

"Yeah I know. Early puberty or something." He said shrugging again.

"Okay," Thalia started loudly, "I've got to get Annie here to biology. If any of you would like a ride on the Thalia train make it snappy or we will leave your asses here." She declared as she got up to throw away their lunches.

Leo raised his hand, "I'd like a ride on the Thalia train," Leo said wiggling his eyebrows.

Thalia smirked, "Sorry kid. You're a bit too young. I'm not sure you could handle all this," she said waving her fingers around her body.

"And you have a very handsome boyfriend. You forgot that part." Said someone behind them.

They turned around towards the voice and soon found the owner of it.

Annabeth got up to hug him, "Hey Nico, where have you been? You know what I already know the answer. Hiding from Thalia."

Nico laughed and hugged her back, "No I was just looking for her actually, but to my surprise I find her flirting with random boys," he said shooting Leo a fierce glare. If you didn't know him you would have thought he was terrifying.

Thalia laughed and walked up to grab his hand. "He's joking Leo."

"No I'm not."

Thalia rolled her eyes, "Whatever. Okay gang. It looks like we're taking a ride on the Nico train."

Annabeth shook her head and laughed, "I have a boyfriend who would not like me to being riding other guy's trains."

Thalia grimaced and looked at Nico, "If you were acting as awful as Jason is right now, I would be finding another train to ride."

Nico looked at Annabeth and then back to Thalia, "What's wrong with him."

"Nothing."

"Everything."  
Annabeth and Thalia said at the same time.

Annabeth sighed, "We're just having a disagreement at the moment."

"Disagreement my ass," Thalia muttered, but left it alone.

When they made it to biology Annabeth hugged them all goodbye and walked into the classroom, Thalia trailing behind her.

She made a beeline for Calypso and smiled when she saw her talking with Cami.

"Hey girls," she said as she sat down.

Cami smiled and waved and Calypso gave her hand a squeeze.

"We were just going over the lab for today. We figured you'd get it before we did better get a head start." Cami said in a shyly and tucked her hair behind her ears.

While they worked they asked each other questions to fill in the time and for the three of them to get to know one another.

"Do you guys play sports?" Annabeth asked.

"Nope. It would ruin my nails."

Cami laughed, "No I don't. I trip over flat surfaces. And my hand eye coordination is lacking. So none for me."

Annabeth shrugged, "Me neither. I just never got into it you know?"

They nodded.

"Do you guys have boyfriends?" Calypso asked.

Cami shook her head.

Annabeth sighed, "Yeah I do, but we aren't talking at the moment."

Calypso's eyebrows furrowed, "How long has this been going on?"

Annabeth laughed at how ridiculous it was going to sound, "Right before first period." They laughed with her.

"I'm sure you guys will work it out. What's his name?"

Annabeth smiled, "Jason Grace."

She watched as Calypso's smile dropped.

Annabeth sighed, "Oh come on what's wrong with him? First Jackson now you."

"What did Percy say?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Just that he was an asshole."

Calypso nodded, "Well I second that."

Cami jumped in like the sweet girl that she was.

"I don't know him, but I've seen him in the halls and he looks nice, Annabeth."

"He is. We just had a falling out today that's all." She said shrugging.

"How long have you guys been dating?" Calypso asked.

"A little bit over a year."

She just nodded.

The silence was awkward for a moment, but Cami quickly broke it by asking them more questions until they had all made it to the bell without being awkward. And for that Annabeth was grateful.

After that the rest of the day was a breeze. World history went by fast, but boring. Seeing as she had no one to talk to.

And PE was... Well it was PE.

When the bell finally rang she waited outside of her classroom hanging onto the tiny sliver of hope that maybe Jason would be there to walk her home, but she soon realized that that wasn't happening and made her way outside alone.

It was just a stupid misunderstanding, they would talk about this, she thought.

Even if she had to track him down herself.

**AND THAT MY FRIENDS WAS CHAPTER 7 OF LAYERS!  
As for the topic of Annabeth's kick ass apology note. I don't have one. I tried writing one, but I just didn't seem like something she would write and I couldn't come up with any more ideas. So... that one will have to be thought of by you guys. Use your awesome imaginations to come up with your own and how you thought it should have gone. **

**QUESTION: Do you guys think i should change the rating to M for the language? Because it's probably only going to get worse from here and... some lemons are bound to happen at some point right? *wink wink* ;) **

**~ TUTU**


	8. Chapter 8

**HEY GUYS! Here is Chapter 8 of Layers!**

**This is my longest chapter yet so tell me how you like it! ;)**

**ALL THINGS PERCY JACKSON BELONG TO THE OH SO WONDERFUL... Rick Riordan.**

It had been 16 days and Annabeth still hadn't heard anything from Jason.

A part of her was happy that she didn't have any unnecessary drama in her life, but the other parts of her missed her boyfriend. She missed his laugh and his smile and his humor and his touch. She missed it all.  
But she stood her ground and held onto her pride because it wasn't like he cared. What hurt the most was that he didn't even seemed phased by her absence. She still saw him laughing with his friends and acting like nothing had changed, even when someone who was supposed to be one of the most important people in his life, had been out of it for more than 2 weeks.

But then again.

Annabeth was grateful.

It was around that time where the teachers were staring to get into the groove of the new school year... which meant more work for the students. And seeing as Annabeth was already in all AP classes, she had more than most.  
A moody boyfriend would just get in the way of that.

Well that's what she kept telling herself anyway.

Things had calmed down slightly at school. Thalia and Leo had gotten in trouble for a locker prank a few days ago, but aside from that, things had been kind of...boring. But best of all, she had no more problems with Percy Jackson. Well she hadn't had any problems as of now, she didn't want to jinx herself.

The last she had heard from him was when he barged into biology angry and red faced a few days after she gave him the apology. He stood in front of her and spoke angrily at her about paying off teachers.  
Apparently he had read the letter.  
He accused her of giving Mr. Brunner money to overlook her 'discretion's' as he called them. Annabeth thought that was laugh worthy. She had absolutely no money of her own and if she did, she wouldn't be spending it on paying teachers to keep their mouths shut. But he didn't appreciate her laughing at him. So he yelled at her until Calypso, who decided that she would be late to class that day, finally came to save her and hilariously made him go sit down in his seat.

Far away from Annabeth.

That was the last time they had any interaction. They were completely ignoring each other during 2nd period and 5th, but Annabeth kind of considered his cold shoulder a blessing.

**(line break)**

Annabeth was sitting next to Thalia in her car after getting lunch from Subway.  
Piper had to do a rain check because she was was meeting her new boyfriend for lunch, so Thalia decided to take Annabeth, Leo and Nico out.

"It's so dirty in here. I feel weird about eating where something could just jump on my sandwich and walk away with it." Leo said from the backseat.

Taking a bite of his sandwich, Nico shrugged. "You get used to it. Plus it's a thousand times worse back here. Little Miss Priss likes to keep her area clean and then forgets about other people that might have to sit in the back." He paused, "Why am i in the back again?"  
Thalia rolled her eyes, "To keep Leo company. And i doubt you would appreciate me and Annabeth yelling across the car about our periods."  
Both of the boy's eyes widened, "You guys seriously talk about your p-lady things?"

"Not at all, but for a minute there you were terrified." Thalia said with a smirk.  
"You guys are cruel," Leo whispered. "One day there's gonna be a guy that doesn't care about that stuff and you won't have the upper hand anymore."

Annabeh laughed and finally spoke up, "Yeah and when that day comes you guys could use some lessons on how to man up."

"Yeah, yeah whatever," Nico said balling up his sandwich wrapper and throwing it on the floor, adding to the clutter.

"C'mon Leotard got need to leave 'cuz i feel some girl talk coming on."

"But... I haven't eaten my sandwich yet." Leo said, still looking around for things that could jump at him.  
Nico shook his head and jumped out of the car taking his backpack with him. "Suit yourself." He looked at the girls and waved, "Bye ladies," he nodded to Leo, "Leonnaise."

"Just Leo is fine!" He said annoyed, but Nico had already shut the door. "Jerk wad."

"Ok!" Thalia said loudly. She clapped her hands like a child. "Annie, you're coming over after school."

"Why?"

"We're going shopping." Thalia said excitedly.

"We're going shopping?" Annabeth asked incredulously. Thalia doesn't shop and on the rare occasions that she did it didn't lead to anything good. She had a history of scaring shoppers and had been removed from 4 stores...forcefully.

Thalia just laughed, "Yes silly I need some new shoes."

"Yeah...but that's why online shopping was created. For people like you."

"People like me, what does that mean?" She asked annoyed.

"That means that you don't like people. Especially large masses of people, so why would you purposely subject yourself to the mall if you don't have to." She asked with narrowed eyes.  
Something was up. It was most likely a trap, a trap where Thalia got Annabeth to buy her something crazy, but she couldn't bring herself to say no, she wanted some new shoes herself.  
"I call shenanigans, but whatever."

Leo leaned in between them finally eating his sandwich. "Why does Thalia wanting to shop seem shady?" He asked, some bread flying out of his mouth onto the radio knob making Annabeth want to gag.

"Gross dude," Thalia said picking up the chunk like it was nothing and throwing it out the window, making Annabeth want to gag even more. Thalia answered, "Little Annie here thinks I can't behave myself in public establishments based on some passed... incidences."

Annabeth turned around to look at Leo, "Passed incidences my ass. She has been banned from Forever 21, Macy's and Walmart!"

"How in the world do you get banned from Walmart?"

She threw up her hands, "That's what I'm asking!"

They heard the girl next to them sigh, "You knock down a few fruit towers and suddenly you're a criminal." She mumbled to herself.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and turned back around. "I'll go to the mall with you. _Only_," she said before Thalia could interrupt, "Only if Leo comes with us."

Leo choked, "W-w-what? Why do I have to come?"

"That way she might calm down a bit."

"But I don't like shopping, especially with girls."

"You'll like this trip, trust me."

"I don't have any money," Leo said grasping at straws.

"I'll spot you the cash Leo." Annabeth said with a laugh.

Thalia turned towards her friends. "Ooh, and where are you getting all this money from Annie?"

She shrugged, "Savings mostly. That's why I need to find a job soon."

Thalia scrunched her nose at that and Annabeth laughed, "Thalia we can't all be rich, some of us need jobs to get money."

"I could always give you some money Annabeth, it's not like anyone watches how I spend it." Thalia said shrugging.

She was shaking her head before her friend had stopped talking, "No Thals, I have to do this. It will prepare me for when I can't rely on my mother's money anymore."

"Yeah I work over at Wes's Body Shop. Good pay and I have fun doing it. Jobs aren't always awful." Leo chimed in.

Annabeth spun around, "So you don't really need any money?" She demanded.

Leo shied away from the agitated girl. "Well I will always want more, but I don't particularly _need_ it at the moment. That was just a plea to get out of shopping."

"Whatever Leonardo. You're going with us." Annabeth said just to piss him off.

Thalia turned around smiling widely, "Come on, Valdez it's gonna be fun. We rarely go out like this."

Leo mumbled, "I'm sure I'm about to find out why."

Thalia waved him away.

"So Chick, what kind of job are you looking for?"

She leaned over to Leo and whispered loudly, "Cross your fingers she doesn't want to be a stripper. She can't dance for shit let alone money."

Annabeth rolled her eyes at her friend, "No Thalia I don't want to be a stripper. I want to do something I actually like. I need to look online for some open positions around here."

"You can do that tonight," Thalia said looking at her nails.

"I thought we were going shopping. Already changed your mind?"

"Nope, I've just decided to make this a sleepover."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow, "When we're you planning on telling me?"

Thalia shrugged, "When I didn't take you home after going to the mall."

"Do I get to sleep over?" Leo chirped, his eyebrows raising comically.

"Nope you have to go back to where you came from." Thalia said sympathetically.

"Will you at least feed me?" He asked hopefully.

"Sure," she said patting his head. "Okay!" She said loudly as if they weren't already paying attention. "We have 3 things on the agenda for today. Mall. Zoo. Then sleepover."

Annabeth scrunched her eyebrows, "Why are we going to the zoo?"

"I told Leo I would take him home." She said with an innocent smile.

"Hey! I do not live in a zoo!"

**(line break)**

"Ok. Chick, I will see you after 7th. Meet me in the parking lot and get ready for Thalia's Day For Loads Of Fun!" Thalia said to Annabeth as they walked out of biology class.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and chuckled before she walked away. She was halfway down the hall when someone called out to her. She turned around and slowed down when she saw Calypso trying to catch up.

"Hey," she said slightly winded.

"Hey." Annabeth chuckled.

"Don't laugh. I know I need exercise. You have history next, right?"

She nodded.

"Good, it's your lucky day. You're getting walked to class by Calypso Atlas."

Annabeth laughed, "Okay. Are you going to protect my honor?"

"Of course, fair maiden."

They walked for a few minutes in comfortable silence when Calypso broke it,  
"I heard you and Thalia talking about having plans this afternoon. What are you guys doing if you don't mind me asking?"

"Oh we're going shopping with Leo and then having a sleepover slash find-Annabeth-a-job night."

A look passed over the other girl's face. "You need a job?"

Annabeth nodded, "Why do you know of anything?" She asked almost eagerly.

"Yeah I do. Do you like books?"

"I absolutely love books." She said smiling.

Calypso shook her head. "I never understood book lovers, but whatever. Ok so there's a job at Athens Books, you know where it is? It's a few miles from the school." Annabeth nodded, she was pretty sure she had seen it before and motioned Calypso to continue.

"Ok so I know the owner, Sally, she's a really sweet lady and she's not necessarily hiring, but she needs some more help around the store. I could talk to her for you if you're interested."

Annabeth couldn't help herself and leaned over to hug the shorter girl. "Oh my gosh thank you! I owe you."

Calypso waved her away, "No you don't, you're my friend so I want to help. Let me call her and I'll text you about what she says."

Annabeth chuckled, "You have her number?"

Calypso nodded and avoided her eyes as she pulled out her cell phone. "Yeah we're good friends. She's like family."

Annabeth smiled, "That's sweet. Why didn't you ever work there?" She asked.

"Oh I did."

"What happened?"

"I realized I didn't like books." She laughed and left Annabeth to go to class.

Annabeth smiled as she left 7th period and made her way the parking lot. Calypso had called the bookstore and Annabeth was going to meet the owner after they went to the mall.  
She spotted Thalia's car across the lot and walked over. She was listening to music and had her eyes closed while her head bobbed to the beat. Annabeth knocked on the window to get her attention and she heard the lock of the door click. She climbed in and got settled, turning down the music to talk.  
"Are we waiting on Leo?"

"No, but I told him we had something to do and he should come find us in 15 minutes." Thalia said sounding half asleep.

"Why'd you tell him that?" She asked confused.

"Cuz we're gonna talk."

Annabeth waited a few seconds to see if she would respond.

She didn't.

"Talk about what Thals?"

"Whatever is going on with you and my idiot brother." She answered sounding more awake.

Annabeth didn't say anything so Thalia sat up and turned towards her. "What's going on? Its been...what like 2 weeks?"

"16 days." Annabeth answered mutely.

"And do you miss him?"

Annabeth threw her hands up, "Of course I miss him, Thals."

"Then why the hell are you two being so damn stubborn!" She scolded."You love each other and you miss each other so why isn't that enough?"

"It's enough for me. Just not him apparently." She said sullenly.

"Why haven't you reached out to him?"

Annabeth's responding scoff said enough.

"You can't be so prideful in these situations Annabeth." Thalia argued, trying to talk some sense into her friend.

"Well he hasn't tried to contact me now has he? Why should I go out of my way when he's just going around like it's completely normal to not be around me?"

Thalia sighed and scrubbed her face. "I don't know. To be the bigger person maybe?" She stopped when she saw Annabeth's expression. "Look, I think you both just need to sit down and have a chat. It's stupid to fight over something thing like Percy Jackson."

"That's not really..."  
Thalia cut her off.

"Have you even told him what happened after he left?"

"No, I haven't talked to him in weeks Thalia."

"Well see that's one problem. This could have already been cleared up."

"You're putting this on me? I don't see him busting down my doors to find out!"  
Annabeth crossed her arms and tried to stop the pout forming on her face. She knew she was probably being childish and if she had seen herself acting like this 2 weeks ago, she would have already kicked herself in the ass and said to stop being so petty, but that wasn't going to stop her from feeling like she did.

"Well chick were going to nip that in the bud tonight."

Annabeth whipped her head around. "What are you talking about?"

Thalia smiled deviously. "I think you sometimes forget that Jason and I are siblings and that we live in the same house."

Annabeth dug her palms into her eyes and groaned. Oh course Thalia had already planned this! It was probably the entire reason for the impromptu shopping trip.  
"Thalia I don't want to do this. Not tonight."

She felt the annoying girl pat her on the shoulder. "Dude relax, you guys don't even have to talk. I just thought it would help if you two were in the same area and maybe saw each other."

"We're you ever actually planning on helping me find a job?"

"Of course. Just...after you had talked to Jason."

Annabeth looked back at her friend. "Well we don't have to worry about that now."

"Why not? Did you change your mind?"

"No. Calypso got me an interview with the owner of a book store down the street. We're going to stop by after we go to the mall."

Annabeth turned as she heard the back door open behind her. And Leo stuck his head in. "Hey. What did I miss?"  
He said getting completely in and making himself comfortable.

"We're taking Annie to a job interview after the mall." Thalia said while she started the car and pulled out of the parking lot.

"Oh that's cool. Where at?"

"Athens Books."

He nodded, "Oh yeah I've been there a few times, the owner is super nice, so you don't have to worry about bitchy bosses."

Annabeth laughed, "Yeah I know. Calypso told me she was nice."

"Calypso Atlas? She's hot."

Thalia rolled her eyes, "She's taken, so you're gonna need to find another girl to pine over, lover boy."

Leo scoffed, "Oh please, I can name them all. Leo is not a one woman kind of man. Let's see...we have Peyton Cross, Kailey Tatum, Cameron Iman, you two ladies of course, Annslie Chapman..."  
That was how the rest of the car ride went. The entire time they were in the car up until they made it to Thalia's house, Leo named every girl from the school that he thought was hot.

"Where are we going again? Aw man you guys are gonna kidnap me aren't you?" Leo cried from the backseat.  
They were driving on a trail in the woods and to an outsider, it looked like they were in the middle of nowhere, but Annabeth knew they were only a few minutes away from Thalia's house.

Zeus Olympian, billionaire entrepreneur and owner of Olympian Inc., also known as Thalia and Jason's father, wanted to build a house big enough to live up to his name. Even though there were only 4 people living there at the time, he wanted his fortress to be larger than anything the state of New York had ever seen. And he accomplished just that, but there wasn't any open property around so he had to build in the secluded forests. The house was the perfect set of a scary movie.

She heard Leo's sharp intake of breath as they pulled up to the front gate. She chuckled at him, her response to the mansion was similar if not worse when she saw it for the first time back in 3rd grade. She had sat there open mouthed for 10 minutes just staring until Zeus finally made them come inside.

Thalia drove up and typed the pass-code to get into the gate and Leo watched in amazement as the tall iron gates opened to show a castle of a home.

Annabeth turned around and whispered to Leo. "Wait until you get inside."

Thalia parked in the large circular driveway and hopped out without another word. Annabeth and Leo got out and had to jog to keep up with Thalia seeing as she was already past the large columns that flanked the front door. She heard Leo sputtering behind her. "This place has got to be...what 50,000 square feet?"

Annabeth smirked, "66,380 square feet and over 1000 acres of land."

"How...?"

Annabeth shrugged, "I had to do a architecture project back in 10th grade and Mr. O said I could use their house."

"I'm guessing that's their dad?"

Annabeth nodded as they walked inside the massive house.

As much as the house resembled a castle the inside was surprisingly modern. Dark wooden floors, marble accents, bright decorations and tons of windows. Zeus let his wife take care of all the decorating.

"Where is Thalia's room?"

"Well, she has a room, but it's more of a space. She has a third of the entire house."

His eyes bugged. "A third? Who has the rest of the house?"

"Jason has another third..."

"Your boyfriend?" Leo interrupted.

"Uh yeah. And then the rest is for their mom and dad. Well, when he's home."

"Is he home often?" He asked as they climbed the spiral staircase to Thalia's room.

"Maybe one or twice a month." She shook her head. "It's complicated."

They reached the top of the stairs in silence.

"Thalia!" Annabeth called out, "Where are you?"

"Game room!" She called back.

They made a few turns and went down a hallway that opened up into the large room.

"Wow," Leo whistled, "I like the color scheme."

"I know right." Thalia answered from a big couch in the center of the room, "I never knew how many shades of black there were until I had to paint this room."

Annabeth sighed, "Thalia you know I like coming to your house, but why are we here exactly?"

"I needed to get my wallet."

"Is that why you're lounging on your couch right now? Looking for your wallet?" She asked incredulously.

"Fine fine lets go," she said and hopped off the couch and headed to the door.

"But we just got here."

"You can come back sometime later, lover boy." She said patting his shoulder.

**(line break)**

"I want some ice cream."

Leo whined as he shouldered the shopping bags on his arms. "Scratch that; I deserve ice cream."

"Stop complaining they aren't even that heavy." Thalia said as they made their way through Hot Topic.

"That's because you aren't holding them!"

"Don't be a pansy, Leo."

She fingered some skull earrings and put them in her cart. "We're almost done anyway, Annie just has to get some more shoes."

"_Annabeth_, just needs 2 pairs and my shopping doesn't take anywhere as long as Thalia's does so we should be out of here pretty soon." She said rolling her eyes.

"Okay, okay I'm done, calm your tits," Thalia complained and payed for her items.

"Okay where to Annabeth?"

She shrugged, she didn't shop very often and when she did, it was online. She had no clue what to look for.

"Well you're in luck, I know just the place," she grabbed Annabeth's hand and dragged her to the back of the mall.

"No I don't want any of your emo shoes." She said trying to free her hand from Thalia's wicked grasp.

She just pulled her harder.

"They won't be black I promise. And... the first pair is on me."

Annabeth groaned. "You don't have to do that."

"Oh I know, but I plan on paying for the expensive pair." She said turning a corner.

"What's your definition of expensive?"

She got her answer when they turned into a Christian Louboutin outlet. Leo whistled under his breath.

"Are you kidding me?"

Annabeth yanked her hand away and crossed her arms. What would she even do with a pair of Louboutin shoes? It's not like she went that many places, let alone places that called for those kind of shoes.

Thalia seemed to read her mind.

"It's only one pair and you could wear them on a date or out somewhere nice. Or even to school when you need to show everyone who's boss."

Thalia turned on the puppy dog eyes and tried to plead with the angry blonde.

"Just imagine how good your legs would look in them Annie. Jason wouldn't be able to keep his hands off of you."

Annabeth looked at her friend and sighed. She could picture the perfect pair of pumps on her feet, making her look like a goddess. She felt a hint of a smile on her face and that was how she ended up leaving the mall with a pair of bright green Vans... and some 4 inch nude pumps with the signature red sole.

"Okay gang!" Thalia yelled. "Time to go get Annie a job!"

**(line break)**

Athens Books was a quaint little cabin that looked so out of place next to the bustling buildings around it.  
It was made out of dark wood and had twinkling lights hanging from the roof as if it was Christmastime instead of mid September. It looked so different from the other stores and Annabeth loved it already. She went inside and was immediately hit by the smell of pine, chocolate and cinnamon; it was very homey. The place looked a lot bigger on the inside than the out. There were rows and rows of books to the right and from what she could see, there were plenty of choices ranging from Historical Fiction all the way to Sci-fi fantasies. There was a large sitting area to the left with wooden chairs and large bean bag chairs where a few people were drinking coffee and working on their laptops.  
Directly in front of them was a small receptionist desk being occupied by a young girl.

Annabeth walked to the desk and made sure her footsteps were loud enough not to startle her.  
"Hello."

"What do you want?" The girl asked; not even looking up from the book she was reading.

Annabeth cleared her throat, "Um, I'm looking for Sally..."

The girl glanced up and glared, "Why?"

"I'm here for a job."

"We aren't hiring."

Annabeth sighed, "Could you just let me know where she is?" She paused, "Please?"

The girl just went back to reading her book as if Annabeth had never spoken.

Well so much for that.

She pushed off the desk and turned around to head back to the car when a smiling woman appeared in front of her.  
"Hi, I'm sorry about her she's not a morning or afternoon person. How can I help you?"

The woman had long brown hair down to her waist and big blue eyes framing her heart shaped face. She looked like a little fairy.

"Yes, I'm looking for Sally. Is she here?"

The woman smiled brightly, "Sally Jackson, at your service."

Annabeth was speechless. _This_ is who owned the store? She was gorgeous. Not that older people aren't, but this woman couldn't be older than her late 20s.

"I'm 37 actually."

Annabeth's face went red. She had said that out loud.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for you to hear that." She said still blushing.

Sally waved her away, "Nonsense. That's the best compliment a woman my age can get these days." She patted Annabeth's shoulder.

"Now you must be Annabeth. Calypso called about you earlier, you're looking for a job right?"

Annabeth nodded.

"Okay then. Tell me about yourself." She said walking over to the couches and sitting down.

Annabeth walked over and sat next to her, "Well, my name is Annabeth Chase, I'm 17 and a senior. My mother is Athena Chase. I have twin brothers, Bobby and Mathew. I enjoy reading and writing. I want to go to college outside of New York and I want to be an architect."  
She took in a gulp of air and glanced over at Sally who was just looking at her with her face in her palms.

"Athena Chase, the neurologist?" Is all she asked.

Annabeth nodded slowly.

"I've met your mother." Sally said an odd tone.

Annabeth rushed to plead her case, "I'm nothing like her if that's what you're wondering."

Sally laughed and patted her knee. "I know you aren't sweety. I could tell from the minute you walked through that door."

Annabeth relaxed. "Good. Well...that's me."

Sally nodded, "You've got the job."

Annabeth jumped up. "Seriously, that's it?" She said with a wide grin.

"Yes. You seem like a good girl who can get her business done."

"I can."

Sally clasped her hands together and got up motioning for Annabeth to follow her into the back room. "Okay so all you're going to be doing is shelve and organize books and help customers find their books. It gets crowded in here sometimes so you have Jessica here to help. That's the girl at the desk." Annabeth nodded not looking forward to her. "And there are times when Jess isn't here so my son comes by to help out sometimes."

Annabeth nodded while she processed the info, when a question popped into her mind. "What would my hours be?"

"When can you get here?"

"Well school ends at 2:15 so maybe 2:30 or 2:40."

Sally nodded, "2:40 to 6:00 and you can just call me if you can't make it on time. How does that sound?"

"That's perfect."

She said smiling.

They spent the next 30 minutes going over all of Annabeth's duties and pay and when they were done Sally walked Annabeth out and gave her a hug. "Welcome to the Athens family Annabeth, we're lucky to have you."

Annabeth smiled at the sweet woman in front of her, "Thank you, I'm happy to be apart of this. I cannot thank you enough."

Sally shook her head, "It was my pleasure. And plus, I gained a new friend today."

Annabeth chuckled and hugged her once more before turning to find Thalia's car.

"So...what happened?" Thalia asked as soon she got in the car.

Annabeth paused for dramatic effect. "...I start Monday."

Leo clapped her on the back and Thalia gave her a hug. "That's awesome chick!"

"Yeah and do you want to hear the best news?"

Thalia nodded.

"You get to drive me here everyday after school!" Annabeth said enthusiastically.

Thalia's face fell. "That's not good news."

"It is! We can have bonding time," Annabeth said cheekily.

Thalia just huffed.

"Next stop. The Valdez residence!" Annabeth yelled.

**(line break)**

When Annabeth and Thalia made it back to the mansion, it was only 6 o'clock, but Thalia insisted that they put on their pajamas anyway to make it a real sleepover. So Annabeth dug into the pajama drawer that had been made for her years ago, to find something to wear and ended up in a Mickey Mouse onesie. She put her hair in a bun and joined Thalia in the game room to watch movies.

They were on movie 2 when a door slammed downstairs and a voice called up.  
"Thalia you home?"

"Yeah in the game room!"

Annabeth stiffened when she heard Jason's footsteps climb up Thalia's side of the house.

Thalia leaned over and whispered, "Relax. Nothing is going to happen, he's probably just...taking the long way to his room." She said with a chuckle.

Annabeth shot her a withering look. She wasn't amused.

Thalia sighed, "Look it was bound to happen. Stop being so stubborn."

She heard the doorknob turn and Jason peeked his head in. "Hey Thals did you eat yet I was..." He stopped when he saw Annabeth, who was just staring ahead.

"Yeah we already ate dude, it's almost 12 o'clock." Thalia said while watching Annabeth.

She heard him swallow, "O-okay just checking." He stuttered and closed the door quickly.

Thalia burst out laughing. "He almost shit his pants!"

Annabeth glared, "That wasn't funny Thals."

Thalia chuckled and turned back to the TV, "Yeah sure it wasn't. But I'm glad. You guys had some visual contact. Next time, we're going to work on your talking skills."  
Annabeth rolled her eyes and started looking at the movie again.

They watched 2 more movies before Thalia was knocked out. Annabeth was sleepy too, but she needed something to drink, her throat felt like sandpaper. She turned off the TV and quietly crept out to the hallway and down stairs to the kitchen. She entered the gargantuan kitchen and went expertly around the cabinets to find the tea bags and a pot to boil the water.

"Always needed a late night drink before you went to bed, huh?"

Annabeth stiffened and almost dropped the mug in her hands. She didn't say anything as she heard Jason moving closer to her.

"Could you put an extra tea bag in there?" He asked.

Annabeth silently added another bag to the water.

She heard him sigh behind her, "Annabeth we can't just not talk to each other. This isn't us, we don't fight."

She whipped around to him so fast her ponytail hit her in the face. "You've been doing just fine for the past few weeks, I don't know why you would want change it now." She spat angrily.

He looked taken aback. "I wanted to talk to you, I just thought you would be mad."

"Oh and why in the world would I be mad, Jason?" She asked sarcastically.

He ran a hand through his hair, "I know I was being a shitty boyfriend, but I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry."

"Sure you are."

"I am. I should have listened to you and trusted your judgement."

"Why didn't you?"

"I don't know. It's not like you've ever been wrong before. I should have taken your word for it and let it go."

She narrowed her eyes. "Do you know what happened after I gave him the letter against your 'wishes'?"

He nodded begrudgingly.

"What happened then?" She asked tersely.

"According to Thalia you shoved it up his ass and gave him a piece of his own medicine...you handled it...by yourself." He mumbled.

She stepped closer and put a hand to her ear, "I'm sorry. What was that?"

"You handled it." He said louder that time.

"Exactly." She snapped. "I did what I told you I was going to do and nothing happened."

He nodded, "I know you did and I should have known. I didn't mean for this to go on as long as it did."

"So why did it?" She asked, turning around to fix her tea.

"Because I thought that me leaving you would make you realize that you need me when it's actually quite the opposite."

She stayed silent not saying anything as she got the honey and sugar.

She felt his hands on her waist turning her around, "I've realized that I need you more. Please forgive me?"

She glared at him, "Why should I?"

He put the full force of his eyes on her and pulled his lips up into a grin. "Because I love you, Anna. And I know you love me too."

She felt her walls cracking quickly and she needed to get one thing in before they caved completely. "You won't do that again. You will trust my judgment, always." She said with the last ounce of coldness she could muster.

Jason nodded, "Never again."

He reached out to take her hair out of its restraints and ran his hands through her curls. She felt herself getting lost in his bright orbs right up until he closed his eyes and pressed his lips to hers.

Sparks.

Annabeth sighed into Jason and was just getting ready to deepen the kiss when a voice made them brake apart.

"About fucking time."

They turned around to find a half asleep Thalia rummaging through the cabinets looking for something until she found some Oreo's, saluted them both and turned back to her room without another word.

Jason chuckled, shaking his head and pulled Annabeth into a bone crushing hug.

Annabeth sighed and pushed her nose into his shoulder, breathing in his familiar scent.

She was home.

**SO THAT WAS CHAPTER 8!  
Annabeth now has a job working for Sally Jackson...hmmm.  
You guys also got a smudge of info on Thalia's home life and some background  
AND Annabeth and Jason got ****sort of**** 'back together'.**

**Let me know what you thought about it.**

**QUESTION: What do you guys think of Jason? ;)**

**~TUTU**


	9. Chapter 9

**HEY GUYS! Here is the 9th chapter of Layers and it's kind of short, but there wasn't much I wanted to do with it and it fulfilled its purpose. :).**

**FOR THIS CHAPTER YOU WILL NEED TO GO BACK TO CHAPTER 1 AND READ ABOUT THE DREAM SHE HAD AT THE BEGINNING OF THAT ONE... IF YOU DON'T REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENS.**

_There were flashes..._

_Her vision seemed sharper._

_Everything brightened._

_When everything cleared she was in Central Park._

_There was a tug in her mind telling her to turn around._

_She spotted the little girl, who turned around to smile at her._

_The toddler's eyes were glowing bright green..._

Annabeth gasped and sat up slowly, leaning against the headboard of her bed to keep upright. She was shaking and was sweaty, though she couldn't understand why. It's not like she had had a nightmare. Sure it was bizarre, glowing eyed children don't appear everyday, but it was nothing to cause this reaction.  
She shivered as she looked over at her clock, the numbers glaring back at her. She was surprised to see how late it was. It was a good thing it was Saturday because showing up to school at 11:45 is usually frowned upon.

Speaking of frowned upon, she had to be at Athens in less than an hour and still needed to shower.

She groaned as she pushed her self up in a sitting position. Her back, neck and arms were all sore like she had just done some hardcore exercise. She walked into her bathroom and got under the shower spray, not bothering to let it heat up first. She pushed her head under the spray and let the tepid water wash the perspiration from her face. She thought about her odd dream and laughed at herself for being so shaken up by a dream that probably stemmed from a scary movie she had seen earlier that week. She got out of the steam box that was making her feel lightheaded and wrapped a towel around herself.

She was leaning over the sink brushing her teeth when she paused. The park, the girl, the luminous eyes... they all seemed oddly familiar to her, but she didn't know why. She shook her head and tried to dispel her thoughts, but became quickly grossed out when some toothpaste foam dropped from her mouth onto her frozen hand.

"Now _that_...was grossome."

Annabeth jumped, startled to see Thalia leaning against the bathroom door tossing her car keys between her hands.

"God, Thalia you can't just creep up on people like that!"  
She yelled as she rinsed off her spitty hand.

Thalia shrugged, "I didn't creep up, I had been standing there for like 5 minutes, but I'm glad I got here when I did 'cuz that was, like i said...grossome."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Grossome? That's not a word."

"Sure it is. Just think of the words 'gross' and 'awesome' having a baby."

She shook her head and walked passed the small girl into her bedroom. "What is it with you appearing out of nowhere while I'm in a towel?" She went straight into her closet to find some clothes.

"I feel like I should be asking you that question. Why is it that most of the time I'm at your house you're half naked? If you wanted me to see your lady bits, all you had to do was offer."

Annabeth shook her head chuckling even though Thalia couldn't see her. "Yeah you caught me. That's my one goal in life. Seducing Thalia Grace," She murmured sarcastically.

She heard her friend walking over and stand next to the closed door, "Well worry no longer bud, you've won me. The only problem with that is Nico, but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't object, he'd probably like to watch."

Annabeth laughed and stepped out of the closet coming face to face with her best friend. "I love how secure we are with our friendship that we can have abnormal conversations like this."

Thalia bumped her with her hip and smiled, "Well yeah because we're the coolest BFF's to ever exist."

Annabeth chuckled and pulled her damp hair up into a ponytail, grabbed her purse and started out the bedroom not even bothering with fixing herself up more. "Okay, I'm ready."

**(slight line break)**

Both girls were silent on the trek down the stairs to the lobby. Annabeth waved to Holland, who was sitting behind his desk reading a magazine and exited the building, getting hit by a gust of chilly air.  
"So," Thalia started as they climbed into her car, "What happened before I got to your house?"

"What do you mean?" She swore her friend was psychic sometimes.

"You looked pretty deep in thought before the whole toothpaste fiasco."

"Well yeah, I had a dream."

Thalia narrowed her eyes, "Same situation afterwards? You wake up not remembering anything that happened?"

Annabeth shook her head, "No, that's the thing I remember it and it feels really familiar."

"You mean you've dreamt about it before?"

Annabeth nodded.

"What happen?"

Annabeth sighed and told her all she remembered about the vivid images in her mind.

Thalia chuckled when she was done, "Well that wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. Why is that bugging you so much? Maybe it's just a reoccurring fear from watching "ET" last year. Remember how freaked out you got?"  
Thalia laughed even harder, but Annabeth couldn't find it in herself to find it amusing.

"No, I get that it's weird, but those few seconds right after I woke up was terrifying, I was sweating and shaking like I had just had a nightmare about an ax murderer; not some mutant 4 year old." She practically shrieked.

Thalia stopped laughing and sneaked a peak at the irritated blonde next to her. She sighed, "Okay, if you're seriously worried about this then sometime this next week we'll see what this dream means."

"How would we do that?" She asked with a raised brow.

"They have all these ways of finding out what dreams mean. A lot of dreams are caused by something going on internally. Like if you have a dream about your hair falling out, it usually means you have a fear of becoming older and unattractive."

Annabeth stared at Thalia, "And how do _you_ know all of this?"

"You get bored sometimes and result to the strange side of the internet," she said shrugging.

Annabeth chuckled and nodded her head begrudgingly, "Yeah, okay. We could try that, thanks Thals."

"No problem. But I am curious to see what green eyed children mean. You probably just need to get laid."

Annabeth snorted and grabbed her purse as they pulled up to the bookstore, "And there she is ladies and gentlemen...Thalia Grace."

The girl just laughed, her bright eyes shining, "Bye Annie, call me when you're done."

Annabeth just rolled her eyes and she got out of the car. She started walking towards the entrance of the store when Thalia called out for her, making her turn around.  
Thalia leaned out the open window, "Chill out today and stop worrying about things and I might just talk to my brother about getting you laid," she said with a wink and drove away before the stunned girl could utter a word.

"Quite the friend you've got there."

Annabeth spun around and blushed fiercely when she saw Sally standing in front of the door, apparently having heard everything Thalia had said.  
"Sally I'm sorry, she doesn't have much of a filter and-,"  
Sally's laughter cut her off.

"I didn't mean anything by it Annabeth, she just seems like a very entertaining person and actually reminds me a lot of my husband."  
Annabeth's eyes unintentionally flashed down to her left hand and decided not to ask any questions when she didn't see a wedding ring on her finger.

"Yeah," she shuffled awkwardly, "Thalia is awesome, but she can be a handful a lot of the time."

Sally smiled warmly, "I can see that." She turned and started walking into the store, motioning for Annabeth to follow her, "Get in here where it's warm and let me see what I have for you to do today."

Annabeth smiled and followed the older woman to the back room where she dropped her purse onto one of the couches tucked off into the corner. She had gotten used to how things worked around the store. She had been working for almost 3 weeks and she loved it. Sally would tell her what needed to get done and once she was done with all of her jobs she would get to read anything on the shelves. She hardly had to do any work with customers seeing as bookshops weren't necessarily bustling with people, a fact in which Annabeth found tragic.

"Okay," Sally said clapping her hands, "Today I need you just go around and see what books need to be put back in their places and I have a few that have been returned that I need you to check in. That's pretty much it for today, Saturdays aren't very busy so I think you'll be fine out here by yourself. Jessica is out for today so I called my son, but I'm not sure if he can make it, so today is on you Annabeth." She said with a reassuring smile.

Annabeth nodded and walked back out to the floor in search of misplaced books. After about a hour, she was done with shelving and moved behind the the desk to scan the returned books. Halfway through she got up to use the restroom when she spotted a book on the floor in front of its shelf. She picked it up and flipped it over to read the summary.  
In the back of her mind she noticed the chimes coming from the front of the store signaling her that someone had entered it, but she didn't acknowledge it until it was too late and she felt a hand taping her shoulder.

"Excuse me, can I-." A deep voice said from behind her.

Annabeth turned around to find herself staring into familiar bright green orbs. Her smile instantly drooped as she took in the appearance of the person in front of her. The boy was wearing a blue and white Goode High School hoodie and a green baseball cap that seemed to match his eyes perfectly.**(A.N- I think Percy in a baseball cap would be seriously hot.)** Annabeth would have been able to take a moment to appreciate the fine specimen of boy in front of her if she hadn't been so thrown off when he spoke.

"What the hell are _you_ doing here?"

Then she remembered who he was.  
Annabeth gritted her teeth and fought the urge to say something nasty back at him, but she had to remember that she was at her work place and needed to keep a cool head and act professional.  
No matter how much of an asshole this customer was she had to treat him like everyone else.

Percy Jackson didn't seem like the type to just wander around libraries very often and figured he would need as much help as he could get. So she found some sympathy deep within her heart and decided to help him.

She cleared her throat and brought out her sweet voice, "May I help you?"

Percy's eyebrows shot up in confusion, "I'm pretty sure that's my line."

Annabeth sighed, "Jackson, I don't want to play any games. I'm serious."

"So am I. I came over here to see if you needed help with something, but trust me if I had known it was you I would have just walked the other way."

"What are you talking about?" She asked, purposely ignoring his jab.

"I work here dumb-ass."

No.

Annabeth felt her heart pick up as dread seeped through her body.  
"_No_ you don't. I do. I've been here 3 weeks and I haven't seen you in here once."

"I've worked here since this place opened." He said as he narrowed his eyes at her. "And _you_ weren't apart of any of that, she would have told me if she hired someone."

"Who Sally? Why would she tell you anything?"

She watched as Percy's face got pale, he looked frightened for a few moments. "Please tell me you're joking."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, she was tired of his games. She should have never tried to help him, screw being professional. She turned around and yelled towards the front desk at the same time as Percy.

"Sally!"

"Mom!"

Annabeth whipped around and stared at Percy, frozen. Did he just say mom?

This could not be happening.

She kept repeating it in her head hoping that maybe that would make it true, but she realized she was doomed when Sally walked out of her office smiling at her..._and_ Percy.

Annabeth heard herself whimper as she walked up to Percy and reached up to grab his face and bring it down to kiss his cheek. "Hey baby, I'm glad you could made it."

Sally turned towards Annabeth, "Percy I see you've introduced yourself to-."

Percy cut her off, "Oh I know who she is."

He turned sharply to face Sally. "Annabeth Chase, Mom...really?"

Annabeth just gaped at him, pretty sure that that was the first time he had actually said her actual name.

Sally looked at the two of them with wide eyes, "I-I don't understand. Do you guys not get along with each other?"

Percy threw up his hands, "No Mom we don't. She's the bit-."

"Percy! You do not, under any circumstances talk about a woman like that!" She said and smacked the back of his head.

Annabeth had to hold back her laugh as Percy clenched his jaw.

"Excuse me, she's the _girl_ that attacked me in the hall on during school!"

Annabeth blanched and started panicking.

He told his _mom_ about that?

Seriously?

Sally's eyes widened even further as she glanced at Annabeth, but quickly narrowed in suspicion when she looked back at her son.

"What did you do to make her do that?"

"What makes you think I did something?"

Sally raised an eyebrow.

"Fine. I said some stuff, but-."

"Would you say it me?" Percy blushed.

"No," he mumbled.

"Would you say it to Caly?"

He shook his head.

"Then why, Perseus Jackson, would you say it to a girl that you didn't even know."

Percy decided not to comment on Sally's scolding and just glared at floor like it had done something to piss him off.

"And you," Sally pointed to Annabeth. She saw Percy start to smirk out the corner of her eye. "I read that apology of yours and I've got to say... good for you!" Percy's jaw dropped, "I'm glad you stood up to him. Girl power makes the world go 'round." She said and patted Annabeth's shoulder as she walked past her back into her office.  
"Oh and Percy," Sally called, "Be nice."

**(line break)**

"Jackson, you might want to close your mouth. The flies might try to come home," Annabeth said as she placed a lost book back on its shelf and turned to see Percy still gaping at his mom's office.

"She's known me my entire life, but she becomes friends with you in a few weeks and chooses you over her own son!" Percy whined.

"Maybe because she knows her son is an asshole," Annabeth mumbled under her breath, but he heard anyway.

He fixed a fierce glare her way, "What is this? Are you stalking me?"

Annabeth scoffed, but could tell he was serious. "Why would I want to be around you anymore then I already am? Isn't school enough?"

"Then why are you here?" He asked, ignoring her question.

"I needed a job and this one was open." She shrugged, "It wasn't even my idea."

"Then who's was it?"

"Your girlfriend's." Annabeth said, and felt an unhealthy amount of happiness in seeing Percy's screwed up face at that moment.

He growled, "_Calypso_, suggested you take this job?"

Annabeth nodded, her face smug, "She even called Sally and set it up for me. She's so sweet. How did she end up dating _you_?"

"Why does this world hate me?" He yelled to the ceiling, completely ignoring Annabeth once again.

"What have I done to deserve this kind of punishment?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes at his dramatics and sighed, "Look I'll stay out of your way and you stay out of mine. We never have to know we work together."

Percy shook his head still looking towards the ceiling, "I can sense when evil is close. That won't work."

She wanted to chuckle at his stupidity, but settled for shaking her head and walked over to the lounge area.

She sat down on a bean bag chair and pulled out her phone to text the little devil herself:

**_Why'd you do it?  
_**It only took Calypso a few seconds to reply.

_Oh hey Annabeth! I was just thinking about seeing if you wanted to get some lunch later._

**_I'm not going anywhere with you, traitor._**

_Why ever would you say that, Annabeth?_

She almost laughed at the false innocence in her words.

**_I don't know. How about you tell me why your boyfriend showed up at the bookstore a few minutes ago._**

_Percy is at the store? Well that's odd, he doesn't read._

**_Yeah that's what I was thinking too, but then he informed me that he works here...Know anything about that?_**

_Ohhhh. Well THAT would be a good reason to be there then._

Annabeth gave up on texting and found Calypso's number and called it.  
She picked up on the second ring.

"Hello?" She answered sounding chipper.

"Why the hell would you help me get a job where he works?" Annabeth whispered furiously.

"Well you said you needed a job."

"Not with Percy Jackson!"

"Yeah, but he's only there a few times a month."

"How did you think it would be okay to leave out the fact that my boss's son was practically my arch enemy."

She heard Calypso sigh over the phone. "Don't be so dramatic Annabeth."

"I am _not_ being dramatic. This is like Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy working together!" **(A.N- From Harry Potter and if you didn't know that already. Shame on you. JK LOL)**

"I don't speak nerd, you're gonna have to elaborate."

"Why did you not tell me about Sally being Percy's mom?" She said getting to the point.

"Well I figured you would find out eventually. Sally's always talking about him."

Annabeth tugged hard on her ponytail. "Yeah, that's still not good enough, but whatever. I need to get back to work, but we _will_ talk about this later."

She said in what she hoped was a threatening voice.

"Wait, how did Perce handle it?"

"He's probably still asking the sky what he did to deserve this."

Calypso laughed, "I'll probably be getting a call from him pretty soon so i need to prepare for that."

"Have fun with that. I hope he chews you out."

Calypso laughed even louder. "Bye Annabeth."

"Bye traitor."

**There it is guys. Chapter 9. I know it was pretty short, but that's all I have right now :) PLEASE REVIEW**

**QUESTION: How do you guys feel about Percy and Annabeth working together?**

**~TUTU**


	10. Chapter 10

**HEY FUNNY BUNNIES! Okay so this chapter is probably one of the shortest ones the story is going to have, but this chapter is just the set up for chapter 11, I promise. ANYWAY here is chapter 10 of Layers! I hope you like it and please give me some feedback.  
The Percy Jackson books and all of their characters belong to the oh so wonderful...Rick Riordan. *applause*.**

"Okay. So it says here that dreaming of aliens usually means that, and I quote, 'you are afraid of being in hostile environments and has had a strange and unfamiliar relationship placed upon you recently'." Thalia shrugged, "Does any of that ring a bell?"

Annabeth sighed and ran a hand across her forehead, "I didn't have a dream about an alien Thalia."

"Fine. We'll check 'odd children'."

"That's not going to work. There were too many things happening. It was the setting and the time of day and the fact that a glowing eyed little girl was the main part! I honestly don't think the internet is going to help us with this." She said exasperated.

"Well maybe we're thinking too far into this," Jason started from the right side of Annabeth. "What if this was just a random dream that means nothing at all?"

"I've had it for 5 days straight, Jace. I don't think that's a coincidence."

It was Wednesday night and Annabeth was over at the twins' house after Thalia insisted that she come over to get to the bottom of the strange dreams that have become a constant thing in her life now. Her reaction to them was significantly less intense than the first morning because she was sure she had grown used to them, but that didn't mean she wasn't still weirded out.

She was tired of being weary about something that once was her favorite past time.

"Well maybe you were just so shaken up with the dream initially, that it keeps occurring." He offered shrugging.

"That might be it, Annabeth.

Look at you little brother. Not so dumb after all." Thalia said with a grin.

Jason rolled his eyes.

"Well Google is still failing us. I searched 'reoccurring dreams' and it says to make them stop, you have to figure out why you're having them in the first place...which is our problem anyway."

"Does it help you? You know with trying to find out?"

Thalia nodded, "Yeah, it has steps."

"Okay, what are they." Annabeth said, suddenly interested. She peaked over at the laptop in Thalia's hands.

"Step 1: Find the root of your problem."

Annabeth groaned and fell back onto the couch.

"No wait, don't give up yet," Jason said, "What are the rest of the steps, Thals?"

"Step 2: Find all the details of your dream

Step 3: Connect the dots and find out what they have in common with what's going on in your life.

Step 4: Once you work on your problems your dreams should stop."

"That wasn't very helpful," Annabeth mumbled.

Thalia sighed and closed her laptop. "Fine, if the internet can't help you then what can?"

"Talking about it might help," Jason said with a shrug.

"Like professionally?" Annabeth was already thinking of ways to shut that down.

"No, I mean right now. With us. Talk to someone you trust." he said with a soft smile.

"Yeah. What's bothering you?" Thalia joined in.

Annabeth shrugged, "Nothing's bothering me. Nothing's changed so I don't think that's the problem."

"Fine then Miss Moody, we can talk about this later when you aren't so hormonal." Thalia said standing up.

Jason stood with her with a chuckle and walked towards the door. "This is where I leave."

Thalia grabbed Annabeth's hands and pulled her up. "When your done being grumpy about surfing your crimson waves, then we will be here to talk." She said with a smirk and walked away.

(line break)

Walking into school hand in hand with Jason after their previous "break" has been one of the best parts of Annabeth's time at school. Being apart had strengthened their relationship and brought them closer together so she really couldn't complain about what happened in between.

Jason started going to football practice at the end of the day so he could walk her to school every morning and then in the afternoons Thalia could take her to work. Annabeth hadn't felt more loved.

They made their way over to her locker, Jason leaned towards her. "I *kiss* love *kiss* you *kiss* so *kiss* much *kiss kiss*." He said, making her blush and walked toward his class with a wave.

Piper and Thalia rounded the corner both with smiles on their faces, Piper's more forced.

"You okay Pipes?"

Piper nodded and grinned widely, "Yeah, I got some bad news earlier, but I'm fine."

"Bad news? About what...if you don't mind me asking?"

Annabeth said as she got her books from her locker and placed them in her bag.

The girl shrugged, "My grades. I'm uh failing calculus."

"Really?" She nodded, "I can tutor you y'know. It wouldn't be a problem, you could just come over to the bookstore and when I have some free time I could help you. I'm sure Sally wouldn't mind."

"Sure, that sounds good. Thanks." She said unenthusiastically.

Annabeth looked at her friend for a beat more and then nodded and walked into class.

Calculus passed by swiftly. There was a test that only took Annabeth 15 minutes to complete so she spent the rest of the class watching Piper. She didn't look like she was having much trouble with the work itself, she was just distracted. Whatever was bothering her was also making her antsy.

When the bell rung Annabeth stayed back to wait for Piper, but was quickly regretting that decision when Piper flew past her and out of the door without a word.

Walking into psychology, Annabeth was confused when she walked over to find a large manila folder on both her desk and Percy's.

She went to open it when Mr. Brunner appeared at her side in an instant. "Does anyone read things anymore these days?" He said exasperated.

Annabeth was embarrassed to find that there _was_ indeed a large sticky note on the front saying "_DO NOT OPEN UNTIL INSTRUCTED TO DO SO_".

"Sorry," she mumbled and sat down and waited for class to start.

When Percy walked in right after the bell rang, which was pretty early for him, he went straight for the folder; holding out his hand to open it.

Annabeth was happy to slap his hand away.

"Stop it, we aren't supposed to touch it."

He glared at her, "What's in it?"

She rolled her eyes, "We can't touch it. Which means we can't open it. Which means-"

"Yeah never mind I get it smart ass." He huffed as Annabeth smiled.

Mr. Brunner clapped loudly, silencing the whole class.

"Okay, now since everyone is finally here." He said shooting a look towards Percy who just grinned in return.

He has nice teeth, Annabeth thought.

Too bad that's the only thing nice about him...aside from his face; she continued.

"The folders in front of you are a collection of case files...murders. We've been studying human behavior and how the brain makes decisions for a few weeks now. So I want you and your partner; the person next to you, to use your minds and notes that you took on the subject to find out what each cereal killer was probably feeling, what they were striving for and what was the purpose for the killings. Then I want you to write a collaborative 3 page essay, front and back, about your findings. If you actually try on this, then you and your partner shouldn't have any problem with getting a good grade. But I would suggest you don't take this lightly, this project is worth 4 test grades so failure to take this seriously...well it'll fail you. I also suggest you don't and cheat, you all have different case files and different suspects." he paused. "Any questions?"

"So you're just gonna have us looking at dead bodies and crap just to find out that the killer was probably just bored?" A kid from the back of the room asked, earning a few laughs from the class.

Mr. Brunner rolled his eyes, "Yes and no. There's evidence, diagrams of the bodies, and personal information about the deceased and the killer. That should be plenty of information to complete the project."

Annabeth's hand shot up and Percy chuckled mockingly at her. "When is this due?"

"3 weeks from today. I figure you would need some time to properly investigate and then you'd need time to write the essay. I also realize that sometimes schedules don't work out and you guys should have some extra time for those days."

Annabeth was surprised when Percy spoke up, "How much class time do we get?"

Mr. Brunner smiled. "None. As a matter of fact, put those folders up, we have some notes to take care of."

Annabeth's eyes bugged out and she quickly turned towards Percy who was already looking at her with a horrified expression.

He sputtered, "So you mean to tell me that I have to work outside of school...with _her_?"

She didn't have time to act offended, she was thinking the same thing.

"Yep," the older man said and then turned towards the black board.

Message received.

This discussion was over.

(line break)

Annabeth and Percy were both silent for the rest of the class, her taking notes and him tapping his pencils on the desk to no beat whatsoever.

When the bell rang Annabeth collected her things and watched as Percy sped passed her to the doors.

"Percy, wait!" She called, never thinking she'd ever said those words.

"Nope," he said and sped up and out the room.

Annabeth huffed and jogged through the door to catch up to him. It didn't take much, he had slown down once he made it to the hall so it wasn't hard for her to fall in line with his walking.

"So we need to talk about meeting places." She said slightly out of breath.

Percy seemed surprised to see her next to him and quickly glared at her like she was a smudge of dirt that just wouldn't come out.

"Here's a solution," he drawled, "Let's just not do it."

Annabeth scoffed, "Of course we're doing it, we'll fail if we don't."

He shrugged and Annabeth had to breath out of her nose to stop her from saying something mean.

"If you don't cooperate, I'm telling Sally." She said trying to bring out the big guns when she got an idea. "Hey! We can work on the project at the bookstore."

Percy didn't seem too thrilled with the idea. "Yeah...about that."

"What?" Annabeth asked tiredly.

"I'm gonna need you to quit."

She backpedaled, "What?"

"You. Need. To. Quit."

"What-," Percy cut her off.

"Is that all you say?"

She ignored him. "Why do I have to quit?"

"Because I'm going to start working more hours after the swim season is over."

"Okay. What does that have to do with me leaving the store?"

He looked at her like she was dumb, "Because I don't like you."

"Okay...I don't like you either. I'm not following where this is going."

"It means I don't want to work with you, Blondie. Man you really are stupid sometimes."

She threw up her hands, "Are you fucking kidding me? You act I like seeing your assholeish self everywhere I go. I like my job and you aren't gonna make me quit." She stopped in front of her next class, "And you _will_ be at the bookstore whenever we need to study or I will personally deliver the message to Sally that you're slacking on your work and trying to kick me out. I'd like to see how she feels about that."

She smirked and turned into her class without another word.

Annabeth 2 Percy 0.

(line break)

"I swear Annie, you have the worst luck when it comes to Percy Jackson," Thalia chuckled, "Everything you do goes back to him."

"Not everything." Annabeth mumbled, not in the mood to be the center of Thalia's jokes today.

"Yes everything." Piper added laughing with Thalia. She seemed to be in a much better mood since lunch started.

"It doesn't matter how much time they spend together. It's not like they talk or anything so it doesn't mean anything."

Jason, who sat next to Thalia, added hotly.

"Jason they're working together. They have to talk at some point."

Piper defended.

"Whatever," he said and rose to dump his trash and grab his bag. "I'm gonna go."

He walked by Annabeth and she reached for his hand, pulling him back, "Jace...".

He shook his head and pecked her lips. "I'm fine, just hanging out with some of the guys."

She nodded and he kissed her once more before walking quickly away from the table.

"He's just jealous, Annie. You know how boys get. They're very territorial."

"I'm not a piece of meat, Thalia."

The small girl held her hands up defensively, "I never said that. It's just whatever is going on in Jace's mind right now, doesn't know that."

**There you have it!  
****So I know that this chapter probably felt like a bunch of one shots, I promise you that they are there for a reason.  
LOVE YOU GUYS! Please tell me how you felt about it.**

**QUESTION: What do you guys think of Mr. Brunner's psych project? (I personally would love to get to do something like that I think I would find it entertaining.)**  
**REVIEW.**

**~TUTU**


	11. Chapter 11

**HEY GUYS! Here's a big one today. Not just in size either. It's gonna give you some information that maybe some of you have been wondering about. *cryptic laughter*.  
****PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW.  
****Everything Percy Jackson belongs to the oh so wonderful...Rick Riordan *applause*.**

"Okay. We'll get our food first and then go over to the table so I can introduce you to everyone." Calypso said as soon and she laid eyes on Annabeth after 4th period.

She had convinced Annabeth to sit with her at her lunch table the day before, and now she was pushing Annabeth through the line and preparing her for meeting 'The Crew'.

**(Line break)**

_Cami, Calypso, and Annabeth had been working on the group assignment given to them in chemistry, when Caly broke the silence and spoke up. "Hey um... Annabeth. Do you think you and your friends would be okay with me stealing you for lunch tomorrow?" She asked almost timidly._

_Annabeth nodded, wondering what she was up to. "Sure, where are we going?"_

_"The cafeteria."_

_"...Why is going to the cafeteria such a spectacle?"_

_Calypso sighed and swept a hand through her curls. "I know it's kind of pathetic, but Percy is going to be gone tomorrow for a swim meet until 7th period, Cami won't sit with me, and I don't like being there by myself."_

_"Why won't Cami sit with you?" She asked, her brow raised._

_Cami spoke up from beside them, giggling. "They intimidate me. They're all either really big or really bitchy."_

_"Um...Who do you sit with?"_

_Calypso shrugged, "The football team, the soccer team, baseball team, swim team, and the basketball team. Oh and all of their girlfriends."_

_Annabeth nodded, "So I'll be fine, right...because I'm with Jason?"_

_"Yeah you'll be fine. He sits with us sometimes. I just don't like being by myself because I have nothing in common with the players or the 'lackies'."_

_"What are 'lackies'?"_

_"The bitches that think they're better than everyone else 'cuz they're boyfriends are popular in sports. They think that it makes them cool automatically, when in all actuality they probably have the combined IQ of 12 and no real friends. They enjoy spending their days torturing harmless students, but you're tough Annie, you could take 'em."_

_Annabeth chuckled and shook her head, "But isn't Percy the captain of the swim team? Doesn't that make you a 'lackie' too?"_

_"Well no. I'm smart."_

_Annabeth laughed and nodded. "Okay, I'll eat with you, scaredy cat."_

**(Line break)**

"Annabeth."

"Annabeth."

"Earth to Annie."

Calypso was snapping her fingers in front of Annabeth's face.

She blushed, "Sorry," she mumbled.

"It's fine, we just need to get our food, the line is moving." Calypso said as she grabbed a tray and made her way down the line, taking food from wherever she pleased.

Annabeth followed behind her grabbing a burger, some BBQ chips and the only orange that didn't appear to be completely brown. She paid and stood next to Calypso, who was looking around the cafeteria.

"Okay," she started sternly, "I'm gonna give you a run down on everyone you're about to meet so you won't go into this looking like a fool."

Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"Okay. This is a lot, but if you can remember hundreds of chemical compounds then you should remember some names and appearances."

Annabeth nodded, but Calypso paid her no attention. "I'm sure you already know Frank, Beck, Nico, Percy and Connor, they are sort of the center of our table. "

Annabeth raised her hand to stop her talking, "Um I actually don't. Well I know Nico and Percy, but everyone else... No."

Calypso gaped, "You've been at this school for 4 years and you don't know the captains of...well everything!"

She just shrugged. She had never really been that concerned with being social until this year. Her last year of high school. Something about this year had to be different.

So, she decided to actuality be socially active.

"Fine then. Let's start with Frank: He's the captain of the football team, really sweet, looks like an Asian baby, and his girlfriend is is the cutest little thing ever and the only exception to the "lackie" rule. Hazel.

Beck: He is the captain of the baseball team, big an bulky, his nickname is 'Hot Chocolate' and his girlfriend is the leader of the bimbos. Silena. I do envy her looks though." She added thoughtfully.

"Next is Nico, but you already know him, captain of the soccer team and the emo club. I'm not sure if he has a girlfriend though, but I wouldn't be surprised."

Annabeth laughed out loud making Calypso pause, "What?"

"Nothing nothing, just remembered something funny." She waved for her to go on.

"Last and very much least, Is Connor. He and his twin brother, Travis, are hell on wheels and you should just keep as much distance from them as possible. His slut-bag is Katie and she's the second in command."

"Okay so what about the rest of them?"

"Well, there's Juniper, green eyes and brown hair from which some say they can see her horns peeking out.

Then there's Drew, she's totally irrelevant and has no boyfriend, although she's been trying to get Percy since he moved here."

"I don't see why," Annabeth mumbled, but the look Calypso shot her said that she heard her.

"So there you go. That's all the relevant people, anyone else and they probably aren't interesting."

Annabeth nodded and took a deep breath as they started to make their way of to the half empty table. Annabeth looked around and racked her mind and decided that no one 'important' was there yet.

They were about to sit down at the edge of the table when someone called her name.

She turned around to find Jason jogging towards her from the lunch line.

"Hey babe, are you sitting with us today?" He asked with a dimpled smile as he stopped in front of her.

"Yeah, Calypso asked me. She also gave me a run down about everyone over here so this should be...interesting."

He chuckled, "Yeah it will."

He looked passed them to where their food was. "Why don't you guys come sit over here," he said and pointed to the opposite side of the table. "You can sit in my seat, just save one for me on the other side."

He didn't wait for their responses and picked up both of their trays to move them over.

He walked back to where they were standing, kissed Annabeth's forehead and walked to the lunch line with his parting words. "Don't let any of them give you shit if I'm not back before then."

"Well, that was something."

Calypso muttered as they sat down at their newly assigned seats.

"Yes, he's very sweet. I don't understand why you don't like him."

She shrugged, "I have my reasons," she said cryptically.

Annabeth was about to respond when a tray made an audible clang against the table.

"Sorry," came a sweet voice, she looked up to see a tiny girl holding hands with a giant in a Letterman jacket.

"Frank," there was a sound of a hand meeting skin, "You scared them. You know what I told you about being less heavy handed. Apologize."

"Sorry." The large man muttered.

The girl grinned at him and turned to the two girls and greeted Annabeth.

"Hi, I'm Hazel and this is Frank." She said sticking her hand out.

"Hi Hazel I'm-"

"Annabeth Chase. I know who you are, you're dating Jason right? Did he ever tell you that he, Thalia and I are cousins? Twice removed." She smiled widely.

Annabeth didn't really know how to respond to that, "Well...I didn't know that actually, but that's cool. It's nice to meet you."

A large hand shot put in front of her face. "Hi I'm Frank. Jason's told me a lot about you, nice to meet you." He said with a dopey grin.

Annabeth had to lean back slightly to shake his gargantuan hand, "It's nice to meet you too, I'm Annabeth."

Hazel sat her hands down on the table and looked at them excitedly. "So...Anna. Can I call you Anna? Jace does it. Anyway," She started before  
Annabeth could understand what she was talking about. "Tell me about yourself. What classes are you in? Any teachers you don't like? I know I have a few of those, I mean-." Hazel was staring at the space behind Annabeth, her golden eyes narrowed and a scowl on her lips. She opened her mouth, but snapped it shut at the same time someone slid into the seat next to Annabeth.

A pretty girl with long brown hair was next to her with her hand out. A large smirk on her face. "I'm Katie. And you are..?

Annabeth almost chuckled, it seemed like Calypso's previous warnings weren't needed.

Everybody seemed eager to introduce themselves.

Annabeth stared at the offered hand in front of her, hoping to make her feelings clear.

Katie signed and withdrew her hand. "I see Caly over there has gotten in your head already. It's really not fair to make assumptions about me before we've even spoken, but that's fine. I'm going to help you out by giving you some advice." Annabeth almost felt bad about her preconceived judgements...until Katie opened her mouth. "The seat that you're sitting in right now is already taken, it belongs to Jason Grace. I'm not sure if you know him, but he's very particular about this seat. So as a friend," Annabeth grimaced, "I would advise you to move or you might embarrass yourself."

"Oh, believe me I know who sits here, but thanks for the advice."

"Then why are you still here?"  
She asked less sweetly.

And there it was. Bitten by the bitch virus.

Annabeth decided to have some fun before the little girl got a taste of her own medicine.

"I'm here because I can be. It's a free country and I'm pretty sure Jace would enjoy my company. "

Katie sniffed, "He has a girlfriend you know. Her name is Annabel, we're great friends and if this is some kind of ploy to get in his pants, it's not going to work."

"I'm very aware of his relationship status. I happen to know _Annabeth_ really well too and she's perfectly fine with me being here." She said in an extra sweet voice.

She heard Calypso snickering beside her.

Katie rolled her eyes, "Who are you anyway? Why are you at this table?"

"The same reason you are. My boyfriend. Well that and Calypso invited me." She said shrugging.

"You have a boyfriend?" She asked incredulously, "What is he, a freshman?" She asked chuckling.

"Nope. Senior. In fact you were just talking about him. Oh look, there he is."

She said and looked up to see Jason walking their way.

Katie's eyes followed Annabeth's and widened when they found their target.

"Wha-what? Jason? Stop lying, who are you?"

Annabeth turned to her and gave her her most genuine looking death stare. "My name is Annabeth. Annabeth Chase. And it was really not nice meeting you."

Katie gaped and Annabeth turned when she heard Hazel's subdued laughter. She noticed that half of the table had joined and they were all looking towards the two girls like it was a tennis match.

"Katie could you please find another seat? You're sitting in mine." A voice said from behind them.

Jason was standing there, tray in hand, with a large smirk on his handsome face.

Katie looked between the two of them before she huffed and got up from her seat to sit by someone who Annabeth could assume was her boyfriend, Connor.

Jason sat down and leaned over to kiss Annabeth. "What did she say to you," he whispered.

"Nothing I couldn't handle." She said shrugging.

"That's my girl," he said smiling and kissed her cheek.

She felt a nudge in her side and she turned to find Calypso looking at her with a proud look on her face.

"I told you you could take them."

"One down three more to go."

"Little Bethel! You made it!" A loud voice practically yelled across the cafeteria. "Thalia told me you'd be here, but I figured you would have chickened out."

Nico said loudly as he walked over to the table, his backpack slung over his shoulder.

"I don't chicken out, Nico."

She said rolling her eyes.

"Sure you don't Bethy," He leaned down and kissed her cheek, "I haven't seen you in a few days, what's been going on?"

Annabeth giggled and pushed him away playfully. "Nothing. Why are you so happy?"

"No reason. It's just a good day." He shrugged.

Annabeth smiled at him, thinking she knew what his reason was. But her smiled was quickly dimmed when a snarky voice spoke up from across the table.

"What, you have Jason and now you need another boy toy? I'm pretty sure Nico is taken already, so you might wanna stop before the name calling starts."

Jason stood straighter, ready to defend Annabeth, but she put a hand on his arm to stop him.

"Damn, Annie. Staring fights already I see." Nico said chuckling.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and turned to Katie. "Nico is one of my best friends."

"I'm sure he is," she said with a cold smile.

Annabeth turned back to Nico, who was looking at them with a grin on his face.

"Earth to Emo." She said snapping her fingers.

"What?"

"Did you ask Thalia about sitting with you?"

"No, she said, and I quote: "No thanks I don't enjoy spending my time with twig bitches and they're brawny air-headed boyfriends."

Annabeth laughed, "That's Thalia."

She spent the rest of lunch period laughing with Calypso, Nico and Hazel, who surprisingly had the best sense of humor. Jason watched their interactions with a grin, but stayed quiet the whole time.

And wicked bitch of the west kept her mouth shut too, but Annabeth sensed that it wouldn't be the last time she would hear from Katie considering she hadn't even met the rest of the Lackies.

No one else talked to Annabeth, but she caught the stares of multiple people looking at her. Sometimes nice. Sometimes not.

She'd just have find out their deal when she sat with them tomorrow.

**(Line break)**

"Okay first date. Go."

"My first date? Oh I remember it like it was yesterday. The year was 1996, I was 17 years old and it was the first time I had ever been out with a man without my parents being with us. And boy was I so excited, I had the handsomest man the state of Chicago had ever seen. He was 18, dark haired, tan skinned and had the prettiest eyes I had ever seen. I knew I was in love with him before we had even spoken a word to each other and by some miracle...he loved me too. Apparently we had been pining after each other since sophomore year and he finally gathered the guts to ask me out at the beginning of senior year. So you'd imagine how happy I was that we were finally going on a proper date that was 3 years in the making." Sally looked passed Annabeth wistfully, "I was wearing this cute little dress my mom had gotten for me a few days before. It was singlehandedly the best thing I had ever worn, well besides my wedding dress, but we'll get to that later. I was all dressed up and ready to be picked up and have the best time of my life, when a loud honk caught my fathers attention."

Annabeth gasped dramatically, "He didn't."

Sally nodded and laughed, "He did. He didn't mean any harm, he was just being funny. We had had a conversation about idiots that honk to get their dates attention days before and he was under the impression that my parents weren't home. It was our little inside joke, but my father didn't understand that.

He made me go back to my room and told my boyfriend to get off his property."

"You must have been sad."

"Oh I was, but not for long. I had cried myself to sleep like the dramatic teenager that I was and had woken up to the sound of rocks hitting my window. He told me he was sorry and that he was only joking around."

"And you let him off the hook that easily?" Annabeth asked incredulously.

"Oh hell no. I had him beg for a little while, but I couldn't be mad. That was just him. And trust me, that wasn't the last time that his odd sense of humor had landed him in trouble." She took a deep breath, "He convinced me to sneak out with him and go on the date that was meant to take place hours before and I agreed. We went to see a movie, we shared a drink and popcorn, walked down the sidewalks hand and hand, interrupted each other with innocent kisses and had the time of our lives. We arrived back at my house as the sun was coming up. He helped me through my window. He climbed in after me and I'm not sure if it was the deprivation of sleep or his hopeless romantics, but when I turned around, he was on one knee asking me to marry him."

Annabeth gasped loudly, "Seriously? How long had you two known each other?"

Sally grinned, "Two weeks."

"That's some serious love there."

"It really was." Sally said quietly.

"How did your parents react?"

"Oh they weren't very happy. Especially my dad. But we didn't care because it wasn't their decision to make. It was ours.

So a month and a half after that day, I became Sally Jackson. And it was a year after that when I gave birth to the light of my life."

Despite herself, Annabeth smiled, "Percy."

Sally beamed, "Yes. Perseus Orion Jackson. My baby boy." Sally gushed, "He was the most precious little baby. He looked just like his father. Those bright jade eyes and that thick black hair. He got nothing from me he's all his father."

The front door chimed and Sally broke out into an even larger grin. "There you are! My baby, we were just talking about you!"

Annabeth stiffened. She and Sally were having the best time just sitting and talking. And he just _had_ to come and ruin it.

Percy groaned, "Don't listen to anything Annabeth says. They're all lies." He said with a slight chuckle.

Annabeth relaxed a little and snuck a peek at the boy leaning over the counter next to her. He didn't seem to be in a bad mood. He was looking at his mom with a smile on his face.

"Okay let me rephrase." Sally started, "_I_ was the one talking about you."

"Well in that case," he turned to Annabeth with a small barely there grin, "Don't believe anything she says because they're probably embarrassingly true." He said and Annabeth chuckled hesitantly.

Was he being...dare she think it...amicable?

"Hey Mom, I'm gonna stay for an hour, but then I need to go." He said scratching the back of his head.

Sally raised an eyebrow. "Hot date?"

"Something like that. The movies."

"That's nice. And because I'm pretty sure I won't see you until tonight: have fun, be safe, and tell Caly I said hi."

"Will do," he leaned over the desk to kiss Sally's cheek. "Love you."

"Love you too."

Percy walked away towards one of the bookshelves and Annabeth gaped at him as he left.

Sally giggled. "Is he really that bad?"

Annabeth blushed, "Huh?"

"Is he really that bad that you're surprised when he acts normal?"

"Well he hasn't been the warmest person."

Sally took a deep breath.

"Well he's still grieving and sometimes it flares up."

Annabeth jerked back. "Grieving? Grieving what?"

"You don't know," she said and gave Annabeth a weird look.

"Don't know what?" Annabeth said anxiously.

"Percy's father died almost 2 1/2 years ago."

Annabeth gasped and covered her mouth. "What? Y-you were just talking about his dad. You made it sound like..."

"Life he was still alive?" Sally whispered.

Annabeth nodded, not trusting her voice.

"Well sometimes I feel like he's still with me. But no. He's not with us anymore."

Annabeth's eyes were filling with tears. "I'm so sorry."

Sally came across the desk and stood next to her. "Sweetie what's wrong?" She asked, rubbing her back soothingly.

"My uh dad died a few years ago too." She said wiping away her traitor tears.

Sally smiled sadly, "I know."

"How-?"

"I used to know your mother." Annabeth nodded, too distracted to ask more questions.

"That just brought back some memories that's all."

"I get it."

Percy walked over to the desk carrying a large crate full of books. "Mom these are marked 'non-fiction', but they have some rips and tears so I think I'm gonna-"

He stops mid sentence.

"Uh. Is this girl talk time or something? 'Cuz I can go back..."

Annabeth shook her head. She was sure her face was on fire and she really needed to calm down before she had an all out meltdown.

"I'm sorry. I'll be fine. I'm just gonna..." She pointed towards the back room and shuffled over quickly before Sally could stop her.

She threw herself down onto the couch and forced herself to stop crying.

If she was being honest, she hadn't thought much about her father since the first day of school. But that's always how it is. The firsts. The lasts.

She 13 when her mother got the call that had shattered they're world forever.

He had been hit head on by a drunk driver driving on the wrong side of the road. Her dad died on impact.

She was fine for a few days. The news hadn't sunken in yet and she just felt hollow. Life went on.

She figured that was all she was going to feel and she might as well be happy things weren't worse.

She was fine until the funeral.

She was fine until she saw her father's dead body.

Who the hell has an open casket when children are going to be there?

Her heartless mother, that's who.

The mother who _knew_ that Annabeth was closer too her dad than any other person.

The mother that _knew_ what seeing her father in that state would do to her.

The mother that said she was helping Annabeth come to terms with the inevitable.

She had to be forcefully removed from the church and brought to a hospital to be sedated.

While her mother was out having drinks.

That was the day she lost all respect for the woman who had given birth to her.

And the day that had changed her for the worst.

A knock on the office door pulled Annabeth out of her thoughts.

She didn't bother picking her head up from her hands.

"I'm sorry Sally. Just give me a minute and I'll be fine."

"Um. It's me." A deep voice answered.

Annabeth looked up to find Percy leaning against the closed door.

"She sent me. For what reason...I'm not too sure, but she did."

"I think I know why."

And if Sally thought Percy could offer any comfort to her. She was wrong.

"So. What happened?"

"What do you mean?"

"Back there. You were upset, well you still are, but what happened to make you sad?" He said uncomfortably.

Annabeth chuckled halfheartedly, "You aren't very good at this are you?"

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "Okay. I'm leaving. I tried and your still being pissy so I'm leaving."

"Wait!" Annabeth stood up.

"I'm sorry I'm not in the best of moods right now."

Percy just stared at her, telling her to continue.

She sighed heavily and plopped back down. "Sally just...told me something sad...and it brought back some old feelings of mine."

"Care to elaborate?"

He said sliding down the door and resting his arms on his knees.

"She told me about your dad." She mumbled.

Percy looked at her for a long time through narrowed eyes.

"I'm sorry if you didn't want me to know. I promise I won't tell anyone it's just-"

"Did she tell you about their first date?"

Annabeth cracked a slow smile. "Yeah she did. Your dad was pretty ballsy."

"Yeah he was. He didn't get any better with old age either, although he always said that was his best decision."

"Because of your mom?"

"Because of my mom." He soft with a soft smile.

Annabeth let out a laugh, "If that happened to me my dad would have gone-." Annabeth's smile immediately dropped.

"Ah. There it is."

"What?"

"The reason you were sad. You brought up your dad and then everything got all dreary again. What happened?"

"My dad was killed by a drunk driver almost 5 years ago. The 5th anniversary is coming up in a few months actually."

Percy let out a sharp breath, "Damn." He whispered quietly.

"Well I guess I know why my mom sent me in here."

Annabeth didn't respond. She just stared at the wall.

She heard shuffling around and was surprised to feel the cushion of the couch sink slightly.

"Tell me about him."

"What?"

"Tell me about your dad."

"Oh um. His name was Luke Chase. He was a professor at Columbia. He taught Aviation Safety and Networking."

"That's for pilots right?"

"Yeah."

"Cool."

Annabeth cleared her throat, "He was from California, but when he met my mom while she was away at the college he was going to. Dad got his PhD and waited a year for mom to finish medical school before they got married and moved to my mom's hometown.

Dad was my favorite. He would do anything for me."

"Isn't that how most parents are with their children?" Percy asked.

"Not my mother." She said coldly. "My Dad was the one that I did everything with. He taught me everything that I needed in life and loved me more than anybody ever will.

And now he's gone and there's nothing left, but my brothers."

"You have your friends."

"Well yeah."

"And along with those friends, you've got yourself a new one."

She looked over at him to see him grinning.

"Calypso. She talks about you all the time. It's pretty annoying."

Annabeth chuckled. "Yeah she's pretty awesome herself."

Percy didn't say anything so Annabeth took the chance to help him.

"What was your dad like, Percy?"

His head snapped her way and he cleared his throat.

He avoided her gaze, "His name was Poseidon Jackson. He was a marine biologist. He had to travel a lot for his job, but he always made time for us. He wasn't one of those parents that traveled and never talked to their family.

He was hilarious. He was always telling jokes and making me laugh.

God. I haven't talked about this in a long time." He said scrubbing his face.

Annabeth reached over tentatively and patted his shoulder. "You don't have to. I just thought it would help if you talked about him."

"It did. It's just-"

Annabeth nodded, "I get it."

They were silent for a few minutes, both of them stuck in their minds.

"You know, you aren't awful."

Annabeth couldn't help the snort that escaped her.  
"That just warms the cockles of my heart."

Percy chuckled.

"But honestly. If this is the real you...this is a lot better than assholeish Percy. Unless you're just in a good mood that will be gone tomorrow."

"Nah it's just today," he said and smiled teasingly.

His smile slowly faded and he looked at the ground. "You know...my dad told me something a few years ago when my grandparents died. I never realized that he could have been hinting at what was inevitable.

Him dying.

I wished I could have taken him more seriously when he told me. Maybe I would have understood it a lot more."

"What was it?" Annabeth whispered.

"There are things in life we don't want to happen, but have to accept; things we don't want to know, but have to learn, and people we can't live without, but have to let go."

He took a deep breath. "I'm going to try to start letting go."

Annabeth held his gaze and nodded. "Me too."

**How did you guys like it? Please give me some feedback.  
****There you guys have it!  
Percabeth has the same stuggles.  
**

**QUESTION: How do you guys think Poseidon died?**

**Until next time...**  
**~TUTU**


	12. Chapter 12

**HI GUYS! SO this chapter had been on my mind for a while now so it was much easier to write and a lot quicker too.  
I'm already partly done with the chapter after this one because i'm SUPER excited for that one, but you'll have to figure out why later on. ;)  
****  
Without further adieu... here is the 12th chapter of _Layers._**

**Everything Percy Jackson belongs to the oh so wonderful... Rick Riordan *applause*.**

_**Previously on Layers...**  
_

_"There are things in life we don't want to happen, but have to accept; things we don't want to know, but have to learn, and people we can't live without, but have to let go."_

_He took a deep breath. "I'm going to try to start letting go."_

_Annabeth held his gaze and nodded. "Me too."_

**(continued)**

"I uh have to go pick Calypso up in an hour and I need to change and stuff." Percy said and heaved himself off the couch.

Annabeth got up too. "Yeah you should." She ran her hands through her hair. "Look Percy. Thank you for talking to me and." She trailed off, "I know how much I hated hearing this when dad died, because most people didn't really mean it. But...I'm truly sorry about your dad, Percy."

He looked at her and smiled a genuine smile.

It was beautiful.

"Thanks. And I'm really sorry about your dad too."

Annabeth nodded and followed him out when he left the room.

Percy told his mom that he needed to the back room to get his backpack.

When he was out of sight, Sally turned towards her and smiled softly. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I am. Percy helped a lot actually."

"And he wasn't an ass about it was he?" She asked with an arched eyebrow.

Annabeth laughed, "No, he was surprisingly very nice about it all."

Sally nodded and straightened the papers on her desk. "That's good. He's a sweet boy."

"Okay I'm off mom." Percy said as he walked back. He kissed Sally's cheek and stepped back to look at Annabeth.

"You're not bad, Chase."

"Neither are you, Jackson."

He shook his head and smile, walking to the doors throwing a 'bye' over his shoulder as he left them.

The chimes were left ringing in the silence.

Sally sighed and came around the desk to hug Annabeth tightly. She didn't let go for about a minute.

"What was that for?"

The older lady looked up at her and smiled brightly.

"You guys are going to be the best of friends. I can tell already."

**(Line break)**

"Mom. I'm home." Annabeth called out as she tossed her house key into the bowl by the door.

"Mom's in her office." One of the twins called out.

Annabeth turned the corner to see Mathew and Bobby playing a racing game in front of the TV.

"How long has she been in there?"

"Few hours," Bobby answered, shrugging.

Annabeth nodded even though they couldn't see her and walked towards her Mother's den.

She decided that it was time to tell her that she had found a job. Not that Athena would care anyway. She hadn't been noticing Annabeth coming home late for almost a month now.

She wasn't sure why she expected her mother to wonder about her whereabouts.

Annabeth pressed her ear against the door and listened to see if she was talking to someone on the phone. It was quiet so she knocked softly.

"Come in." Her mother's bored voice answered.

Annabeth walked in to find her mother holding her outdated blackberry in one hand and a full glass of wine in the other.

Her mother didn't drink very often, but when she did, it usually meant that she had had an especially trying day. Which, to everyone at home, was a sign to stay away.

Annabeth contemplated just turning around and going upstairs, but instead, she squared her shoulders and stepped completely into the room.

She cleared her throat, "Mother I would just like to let you know that I've gotten a job."

"When did this happen?" Athena asked without looking up from her phone.

"About a month ago."

Her mother raised a brow, but not her eyes. "So that's where you've been. I figured you were just out with that boyfriend of yours." She said with distaste coloring her tone.

"Nice to see you've been paying attention. I'm surprised you noticed I was even gone." Annabeth murmured loud enough to make sure Athena heard.

"Where's the job at?" She asked, ignoring Annabeth's jibe.

"Athens Books, It's down the street from-,"

"I know where it is." Her mother interrupted.

Annabeth just huffed.

"Are you getting volunteer hours for working?"

"No."

"Is the owner writing a recommendation letter?"

"Nope."

"How much are you getting paid?"

"9.50 an hour."

Athena finally looked up, her expression annoyed. "That's practically minimum wage, Annabeth. If you aren't earning anything towards college or volunteer hours, I don't see why you're working there." She rolled her eyes. "And don't tell me it's for that meager salary."

Annabeth glared, "No, it's not for college or for money. I just want job. A job where I have responsibilities and make _my own_ money for a change. That's something I'll have to get used to next year anyway."

"Why would you have a job while you're at Columbia?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. Athena was practically the poster child for her dad's favorite college and since Annabeth had started talking, her mother had it drilled it into her head that she was going to be one too one day. Athena used to think it would be so fun to have her husband teach their daughter, but then things changed.

Apparently not enough.

Honestly, if it was up to her mother, Annabeth wouldn't have had a choice in the matter.

"I haven't decided on a college yet, Mom."

"Well you need to figure it out. All the Ivy Leagues are getting ready to start their early admissions and you need to be apart of that."

"And besides," she started, completely disregarding her mother's words, "We can't afford four years, or maybe more, of any of those big schools. I'd have to get a job anyway."

"That's for me to worry about, not you."

"No, it includes me too! _I'm_ the one that doesn't get to go college if we can't pay for it!" She whispered fiercely, aware that her brother were next door. She took a deep breath. "So yes, I think I should contribute to my fund."

"Well you won't be doing much of that with a dead end job at a crappy bookstore." Athena said and brought her eyes back down to her phone.

It was times was times like these where Annabeth wished Thalia's 'hit a bitch' policy included her mother.

Annabeth took a long deep breath in and let it out through her nose.

She had learned that from an anger management documentary.

"Look. I just came in here to tell you about the job." Annabeth walked out of the room.

"Wait." Athena called out.

She turned around and for a second, she thought that maybe her mother was going to apologize.

"Go down the street and pick up the Chinese food for you and the boys. I already ordered."

Annabeth stared at her mother and shook her head in disbelief. "Fine." She muttered and slammed the door when she left.

When she walked back into the living room Bobby was sitting on the arm of the couch waiting on her.

"What was that?" He asked, pointing to the closed door of the office.

"Your mother being your mother."

"She's your mom too you know." Mathew said from in front of the TV.

"It doesn't always feel like it." She mumbled

And like the 6 year olds they were, their minds immediately drifted.

"What's for dinner?"

"Chinese. I'm going down the street, you guys wanna come with me?"

"Yeah!" They both shouted and took off towards the door.

"Slow down and wait for me!" She called after them.

She grabbed their jackets and told them to put them on.

She threw a sweater over her head and grabbed her keys.

"Okay gang, let's go."

She opened the door and the boys sped past her to the stairs. They already knew the drill.

"Slow down and hold each others hands. I don't want to see anyone let go until we get back into the apartment, okay?"

"Okay!" They both cheered.

They made it outside and Annabeth was immediately regretting her sweater choice. It was freezing, but the boys didn't seem bothered by the cold in their bulky jackets.

She grabbed Mathew's hand and instructed him to to the same with his brother.

"Hands together. If I see you guys separated, no crab puffs for whoever let go first." She threatened knowing how serious they were about their crab puffs.

They walked about a block before they reached The Dragon Gong.

Annabeth let go of Mathew as they got into the line.

She was listening to Bobby and Mathew's conversation about his new project for school, when she caught a familiar voice speaking in front of her.

Apparently the line had been moving some. They were second in line to order and right in front of them, buying fried rice for two. Was Jason.

She tapped on his shoulder, smiling. "Jason?"

He whipped around and looked more than shocked to see Annabeth there.

"H-hey Anna. What are you doing here?"

She laughed, "We were sent on food duty." She said gesturing to her brothers.

Jason smiled at them. "Hey guys, how's it going?"

"Fine," Mathew answered. "Annie is making us hold hands until we get home or we don't get any crab puffs." He said sullenly.

"Well that's good. That means you won't get lost." Jason answered trying not to laugh.

"I guess."

She woman behind the counter cleared her throat and jade turned back around to pay.

"Is that for you and Thals?"

"Uh yeah," he said while he grabbed the food and moved to the side so Annabeth could order.

Annabeth told the lady about her mom calling in and turned back to her boyfriend.

"Well you know how Thalia is about her Chinese food. Maybe you should get going."  
She offered. He was starting to look uncomfortable standing off to the side like that.

He nodded and leaned in to peck her lips briefly. "Bye. I'll see you tomorrow." He whispered and left the restaurant quietly.

Annabeth's name was called and she stepped forward to grab her bag and the drink she ordered. She paid and they all were walking to the door when she spotted a familiar face looking out the window.

She pointed for the boys to sit down and watch the food as she made her was over to the booth.

"Hey Pipes, are you waiting on someone?" She said, siting across from her.

"Oh hey. Yeah, I was, but he had to cancel."

"Your boyfriend?" She asked sympathetically.

"Yeah. But it's fine. I was getting ready to leave anyway."

She turned towards Annabeth, there were tear tracks on her face.

"Aw Pipes, have you been crying?" She said sadly.

"No, I-I just yawned." Piper said unconvincingly.

"Things will get better, I promise." She said and stood up to hug her friend.

The girl in her arms just nodded.

"Do you want some company?"

Piper shook her head. "No, my mom should be here any minute. Go. Go have fun with your brothers and thanks for talking to me."

Annabeth took that as her dismissal and started to walk back to the twins.

She grabbed their hands and walked out the door, but not before calling out to Piper and telling her bye.

**(Line break)**

The next day Annabeth was walking into the school with Thalia. "I think I'm gonna sit at the popular table with you today." She said with quotation fingers.

"Why? I thought they were too annoying for you."

Annabeth said, chuckling at the mental picture in her head. Thalia kicking Katie's ass.

"Yeah well, Piper's not at school today, Leo has a nerd competition, and Nico sits with you guys, so it looks like it's my turn to join." Thaila said, sounding like she was facing impending doom.

"It sounds like you're joining a cult."

"Those twig bitches are probably worse than a cult."

"And that, is _not_ how you should start a conversation with them."

"Oh, I won't be talking. I don't need to get my blood pressure high over those hooligans." She said waving Annabeth away.

"You sound like my grandma." Annabeth laughed and then ducked away from Thalia's flying hand.

"Grandma Chase is a rickety old hag. Don't compare me to her."

"Well then stop acting like her and don't go into this already expecting a fight."

Thalia sighed dramatically, "Fine. I'll play nice."

"Good girl," she patted the small girl's head.

Thalia laughed and pushed Annabeth into her class room, "Go to class weirdo."

Annabeth stumbled into the room still chuckling and was met with the curious stares of her classmates.

She blushed and quickly went to her seat to sit next to Piper, who was smiling widely at her.

"You look happy." Piper commented when she Annabeth sat down.

"So do you."

"Thalia and I were playing around." Annabeth tested the waters. "You seem happier than when we saw each other last night."

"Yeah, I finished the night off nicely." She said with a small smile.

"Did your boyfriend come over?

Piper nodded and blushed.

Annabeth laughed evilly, "You got some didn't you." She said and nudged the embarrassed girl next to her.

Piper blushed even harder and let out a chuckle of her own. "No comment."

Annabeth had to rein in her squeal. "Well I'm glad you're in a happy mood again."

"Thanks, Annabeth."

"Now...what's his name?"

And that's how they spent the rest of the period talking about Piper's new boyfriend, David.

**(Line break)**

When Percy walked into class at the beginning of 2nd period. Not much had changed between them. He still came in after the bell, gave his signature salute to Mr. Brunner and then sat down beside Annabeth without a word.

"Okay class. Today you guys are going to do an assignment with your partners. I'm going to give you some ink blots. You look at them, write down what's the first thing you see, and then look at the charts to interpret what it means. Remember that you and your partner will probably not see the same things."

He walked around the desks and sat 10 ink blots on Percy's desk and a comparison chart and blank sheet of paper on Annabeth's.

"Write your findings on the sheet of paper. You may start."

Annabeth turned towards Percy and decided to get rid of any awkwardness.

"Hi."

"Hey."

Well that helped nothing, she thought.

"Okay so we'll take turns. You can hold the cards up for me. And then I'll hold them up for you."

"Okay." He said quietly.

Held up the first one.

"Lizard."

Annabeth wrote it down and Percy held up the next one.

"Cat."

He held up the next one.

"Fish."

She wrote it down.

"So is this just going to be awkward or are we going to go back to hating each other?" She asked when she finished writing.

He held up the next one and Annabeth just stared at him.

He put down the picture and grinned, "I was under the impression that we still hated each other."

Annabeth felt her face frown up, but she shouldn't have been surprised. This was Percy she was talking to.

He nudged her shoe with his foot. "Oh lighten up, I was just kidding, Chase. If you want to be mushy BFFs, that's not gonna work, but I don't hate you."

Annabeth laughed, "I don't need another best friend, I have Thalia for that. But yes I don't hate you anymore."

Percy reached for the cards again and held one up. "Oh come on, Chase, you know you never hated me."

"I see a Girl. And admit it, you never hated me either." She said with a smirk.

"No I didn't. But you're just so annoying sometimes."

"Don't you mean was?"

"Nope."

Annabeth glared at him halfheartedly.

"Scorpion."

"That was so not a scorpion, but okay." He said and grabbed another one.

She smacked his arm, "Percy you aren't supposed to look at them yet!"

He rubbed his arm, "Damn Chase. I tell you I don't hate you and now you're acting like my mom."

She rolled her eyes, "Hippo."

Annabeth had finished the rest of her cards and grabbed had her score sheet to interpret them, when Percy grabbed them out of her hands.

"Nope. Wait 'til I do mine then we can do each other's."

"That sounds dirty," Annabeth giggled.

Percy stared at her for a while, his face disbelieving. "Didn't know you had it in you, Chase."

"What that I could be dirty?" She said with a raised eyebrow.

"No, that you had a sense of humor."

That earned him another smack.

"Ow! You're worse than Calypso." He said while rubbing the bulging bicep that had caught Annabeth's attention for a little bit too long.

"Well that's not too bad, Calypso is awesome."

"Yeah. Yeah she is." Percy said lowly, his demeanor changing swiftly.

Annabeth took a quick peek over at his face to find any hints as to what he was thinking, but got his emotionless expression back.

"Are you and Caly okay?"

"Yeah. Why, did she say something?" His eyebrows coming together.

"No," Annabeth said as she shuffled the cards up, "You just sounded like you had something on your mind."

"Nah I'm good."

She nodded and held up a card.

"Penis."

Annabeth choked. **(A.N- Hehe)** Percy stared at her with a shiteating grin.

"Stop playing around!"

His smile grew, "I'm not. I see a penis." He leaned in and tapped on the picture. "See? Right there. A penis."

Annabeth looked, but all she saw was a turtle.

"I don't see it."

"Well of course you don't. Have you even ever _seen_ one, Chase?"

She blushed, but chose not to dignify that with a response.

"You know what? I _do_ see it. It's really tiny though, probably the reason why you could spot it."

His eyes narrowed, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well you know... If you have a history of seeing small things...well maybe that's why-."

"I'm gonna stop you now, before I'm forced to prove your theory wrong and embarrass you in front of the entire class."

"No thanks. I'll just ask Calypso," She said smugly.

"So _that's_ what you guys do in your free time? Talk about my d-"

She cut him off, "I don't know about Calypso, but I only talk about my own boyfriend."

She should have known bringing Jason up would stop the conversation. It always did.

Percy's face dropped immediately, "Chicken."

She threw the cards down. "Spill it."

"Spill what?" He asked innocently.

"What is so bad about Jason?" She cried. "Why do you and Caly immediately tense up as soon as I mention his name?"

"Because he's not a good person, Annabeth."

He said sternly.

"You called me Annabeth." She said surprised.

"I'm pretty sure that's your name." He said, looking at her weirdly.

"You've never said my actual name before."

He rolled his eyes, "I'm pretty sure I have, but why does that matter?"

"Because that means you're serious."

"I am."

"So what makes you believe that?"

He shrugged almost apologetically, "It's not my place to say."

"Since when do you use discretion?" She asked incredulously.

"Since now."

"Ugh! Why are you being so difficult?"

"Look, I can tell you one thing." He leaned forward, his familiar green orbs penetrating her own. "Be careful with who you call your friends."

"Who? Friends like you?" She asked heatedly.

His eyes flashed for a second and he leaned back, his expression subdued. "Wow Chase, we're friends now?"

"Percy..." She said pleadingly.

He sighed. "Look. Even if I did tell you, you wouldn't believe me. _You _have to find out on your own."

"Why wouldn't I believe you?"

He chuckled, "Well for one, you don't trust me. Not yet anyway. And two. Well my...dad used to tell me something all the time: When someone puts their heart to something, nothing and no one is going to change their minds so you'd better not try. I think that's what's happening."

Annabeth softened considerably at the mention of Percy's father.

"Fine," she conceded softly.

Percy began to pack up his things, because the bell was about to ring at any minute.

"I didn't finish my half of the assignment, so I'll turn it in tomorrow."

"That's okay."

He chucked and looked at her in disbelief. "Wow."

The bell rang and they both stood up and walked out the door.

"Before we go, we need to figure out a time when we can work on our project for psych."

"Okay."

"I know you don't want-. Wait what?"

"I said okay," he chuckled.

"Has the Percy Jackson that I know died?"

"No. This Percy just happens to tolerate you a lot more than old me."

Annabeth laughed, "Okay. Can we work at the bookstore?"

"Yeah, mom should be fine with it."

"Good, okay. I'll see you at lunch." She said when they stopped in front of her next class.

"Ah yes. Caly told me about the spectacular take down of Katie. The little devil."

"I didn't beat her up or anything. She was just insinuating some things that I didn't appreciate so I handled it."

"You should have handled it with your fists. Girl fights are hot."

"I'm sure you think they are." She smiled as she pushed his shoulder lightly. "Go to class, Jackson."

"Later, Chase."

Annabeth turned around to go into her classroom when she caught the eye of Calypso, who was standing on the other side of the hallway, staring at her.

She didn't look mad. There wasn't an expression on her face at all. Annabeth tentatively raised her hand and waved and Calypso seemed to snap out of it enough to smile back.

Walking into the class room, Annabeth felt guilty, really guilty. She knew she and Percy weren't doing anything guilt worthy, but she just had to put herself in Caly's shoes. Seeing her boyfriend in a somewhat flirty atmosphere with another girl. No matter how platonic.

And that just made her feel even worse.

**(Line break)**

Lunch passed without a problem. The Lackies were no where to be seen so Thalia didn't have to be held back from shanking anyone. Jason wasn't at lunch because of some out of the blue football drills that he had to do. So Annabeth just talked to Calypso, Hazel, and Thalia. Turns out, Calypso and Thalia are more alike than anyone saw coming, so now, they're the best of friends.  
After lunch Annabeth had to work by herself on a chemistry assignment that Cami and Calypso had already been paired up in, so that sucked. But the rest of the day passed seamlessly.

Until it was time to go home.

"What do you mean you got detention?" Annabeth cried.

"It means what I said. Me and Leo where playing around last period and we ended up getting paint all over our teacher. I'm sorry Annie, but I can't drive you to work, you'll have to find someone else." Her friend said irritably.

"But there _is_ no one else Thalia!"

"I'm sorry. Just call Sally, you haven't missed a day yet, I'm sure she will let it slide today."

"I could give you a ride." A voice behind them spoke.

They both swirled around to find Percy and Calypso standing beside each other, hands interlocked, behind them.

"_You're_ going to give me a ride?"

Percy shrugged and nodded, "Sure. I have to drop Caly off first, but then I'm going to the bookstore."

"It's fine. I'll find her a ride." Thalia said evenly.

Annabeth looked at her friend and shook her head. "It's fine, I'll go with them."

Thalia looked between the 3 of them and nodded. "I see things have changed between you two." She said pointing at Percy and Annabeth.

Annabeth only nodded.

Thalia sighed, "Just text me when you get there."

Percy chuckled, "I'm not going to kidnap her."

"I just want to know that she got there safely," she snapped.

Annabeth quickly grabbed her shoulders before she could move, "Alright Tiger, have fun in detention with Leo and i'll text you when I get to work. Okay?"

Thalia nodded and walked back down the hallway, looking over shoulder a few times to give Percy the evil eye.

Annabeth turned to the couple who were looking down the hall with grins on their faces. "Okay. Let's go."

Percy pulled Calypso outside and Annabeth followed. The walked through the parking lot until they stopped at a bright blue vintage pickup truck.

Annabeth climbed into the backseat while they both got into the front. She felt the worn, yet pristine condition the leather underneath her, was in.

"Woah Percy. How old is this car?"

"It's a 1965 Chevrolet Cameo. Mint condition."

She whistled, "I can tell. This is amazing."

"You know cars?" She could hear the surprise in his voice as he started up the car.

She shrugged, "Sort of. Well not much actually, but I do know a nice car when I see one." She took in the woodsy scent of the vehicle. "My dad used to teach me all about cars until I got old enough to tell him I wasn't interested." She chuckled.

She looked up to see Percy smiling at her from the rear view mirror.

Calypso turned around in her seat and smiled at Annabeth. "That's cool. What other things did you do with your dad, Annabeth? My dad and I haven't done much bonding stuff in a while."

"Uh well. We haven't done much of anything after that."

"Why." Calypso asked, her brow creasing.

"Caly don't pester her." Percy joined in, hoping to help out.

Calypso frowned at him.

"It's fine, Percy." She looked to the girl in front of her. "My dad passed away 5 years ago."

Calypso hands flew to her mouth in horror. "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry, I didn't even think about that when I asked the question. I'm so stupid!"

"You aren't stupid." Annabeth and Percy said together.

"Yes I am!" She cried. "I should have known! Percy tried to stop me. And I know how he gets when people ask about his dad."

Calypso froze, her eyes wide and looked over at Percy apologetically.

"Relax. Annabeth knows already." He said and grabbed her hand.

She let out a breath and looked back at Annabeth.

"No. Stop it. It's okay, that you didn't know." She said before Calypso could say anything else.

Calypso shook her head as the car stopped.

She looked out the window to her house, "This is me." She grabbed her bags, and leaned over the divider to kiss Percy. It lasted longer than Annabeth thought, and she found herself looking away from their personal moment.

They broke apart and Calypso turned to Annabeth once more. "I'm sorry." She got out before Annabeth could scold her and jumped out of the car.

Percy chuckled at his girlfriend and turned the car back on, but didn't move.

He looked back at Annabeth.

"Do you want to come up here?"

Annabeth hesitated for a minute, but quickly got out of the car and opened the passenger side door.

As Percy pulled off, Annabeth took one last look at the house beside her and could have sworn that she saw Calypso looking at them through the second story window.

And the guilt was back.

**(Brief line break)**

Neither of them talked during the ride to the bookstore. Annabeth just looked out the window while Percy drove.

When they got to the store they were greeted by Sally and forced to go their separate ways to work.

Annabeth stayed for a few hours before she had to go home. Percy offered to drive her and with the force of Sally and Percy's combined efforts, Annabeth gave in.

She gave Percy directions to her apartment and when he arrived they sat in awkward silence for a few seconds.

"Well thank you for the ride. Really, you didn't have to so I appreciate it."

Percy smiled at her, his cheeks full of handsome dimples. "That's what friends are for, right?"

"I was under the impression that we weren't friends, yet." She said with a raised brow and a playful voice.

He laughed, "You've been promoted to 'friend' now. Congratulations Chase."

Annabeth laughed with him as she opened her door.

"Seriously, thank you for the ride. Rides." She corrected herself.

"Goodnight Chase."

He said grinning.

"Goodnight Jackson."

**(Line break)**

That night when Annabeth went to bed, sleep came easily to her, for it was the first night that she'd dream of Percy Jackson.

**How did you guys like that one? I know it might have been a bit confusing because of all the jumping around, but I tried to make the transitions pretty smooth.**

**QUESTION: What's going on with Calypso?**

**IF YOU GUYS DON'T WANT TO BE SEVERELY CONFUSED ON THE NEXT CHAPTER, I SUGGEST THAT YOU READ MY AUTHOR'S NOTES.**

**Until the next chapter..**  
**~TUTU**


	13. Chapter 13

**WARNING! Just kidding. But if you plan to attempt to understand this chapter, you are going to need to read this.**

**My use of 'they' is NOT a way of talking about multiple people. I am only referring to 1 person. That person is being referred to differently because their gender is unknown.**  
**EX: The person she loved was amazing, she sometimes wondering what THEY saw in her.**  
**:)**

**NO Calypso is not on drugs. This is more of her subconscious during school or while doing everyday things, so it's bound to be a little bit different.**

**This chapter is and will be the shortest chapter of the story.**  
**It's kind of like an epic poem. But less...epic. ;)**

**THIS IS the kind of the 12.5th chapter, but we're gonna call it the 13th chapter of _Layers._**

**(CALYPSO POV...kinda)**

Calypso was a bad person.

She knew she was.

What kind of person can, in their right mind, give up the best thing that's probably ever happen to them?

She loved both of them.

She really did.

But one overpowered the other.

Completely and totally.

She didn't know how to deal with all the hurt she was causing.

He didn't even know about the hurt that was about to happen.

She did though.

She was in love with one of her best friends.

Her best friend that was _not _her boyfriend.

There. She admitted it.

It was out in the open.

Well to her at least.

Her love knew she loved them.

But they also knew what she could not admit.

She couldn't let her former love go.

God, she sounded like such a sap.  
**  
(Line break)  
**

Her friends probably thought she was crazy.

Well sometimes _she_ thought she was crazy.

She couldn't tell anyone.

Except for her love.

Her love already knew.

She thought she had felt true love with her former love.

Apparently not.

He was good.

She was going to taint him.

Both of them, really.

Wait, she shouldn't give herself so much credit.

She set it up.

She set it up so that he wouldn't get hurt.

He'd have someone to fall back on.

Someone he could trust as much as he used to trust her.

She found that person for him.

Annabeth.

He would be okay.

**(Line break)**

"Caly."

She looked up to see her former love.

He didn't know that though. The 'former' part.

He was so beautiful. He hated being called that, but that's what he was.

His strong jaw and facial features.

His warm eyes and heart.

Even that mess at the top of his head that he called hair.

Beautiful.

She loved him, she really did.

But she remembers how it used to feel when he would smile at her.

Fireworks.

And now.

Butterflies.

And not because of attraction.

She was scared.

She had to tell him sooner or later.

So he could move on.

And she could be with her true love.

As selfish as that was.

**(...)**

"Caly." He waved his large hand over her eyes once more.

She snapped out of it.

"Sorry. What were you saying?"

"I was just going to ask you if you wanted to stop by your locker before you went to class, but the bell is about to ring." He said, his eyes kind.

He loved her.

Not as much as he used to.

But he still did.

Even if it was just a little bit.

She hoped it was.

"No, i'll just go to class." She said unsteadily.

He didn't notice.

That's how she knew.

He cared.

But it was no longer love.

He had already started reserving that for someone else.

He didn't know that yet though.

**(Line break)**

She walked into class and briefly went through the stages of seeing her love.

Excitement.

Anxiety.

Love.

And finally, contentment.

None of that prepared her for when she actually saw them.

She would probably always be like this. All soft and romantic.

Her love smiled at her.

She smiled back, but it was shaky.

They asked what was wrong.

They loved her.

She told them it was nothing.

Her love didn't believe her, but yet again, neither did she.

She made it through the first period.

Then came second.

Her love was in that class too.

They walked with her.

They talked to her.

They smiled at her.

It all made her feel like her heart would burst.

She never felt like that with him.

She didn't want him to feel responsible.

Like he _made_ her turn away from him.

Because he didn't.

**(Line break)**

She didn't notice second period passing by.

She did notice, however, that her love was absent in her third in forth periods.

It made her sad.

Her love was gone for lunch too.

They didn't like eating with her.

**(Line break)**

She got to her favorite class period.

Fifth.

Her heartbeat accelerated as she entered the classroom.

Her love wasn't there yet.

Good.

She liked to watch them walk in.

Her past love comes through the door first.

He smiles at her.

She gives him her best grin.

Then looks back towards the door.

Next is her friend.

The new love of her former love.

The blonde.

She sits next to her and asks her how her day is going.

She does this almost everyday.

**(Line break)**

Calypso starts to panic.

Her love is late.

But then they walk through the door just as the bell rings.

Her love makes eye contact with her.

Her heart swells.

They walk towards her and sit down.

She grabs her love's hand under the table and greets her by name.

"Hi Cami."

**If you were confused by this chapter I would advise you to scroll back up and go read my author's note. :)**  
**  
SURPIRSE! (For those of you who are now looking at the screen with their jaws dropped...I would advise you to close them.)**

**So..Calypso is gay. And is in love with Cami. And still hasn't told Percy.**

**QUESTION: How do you guys feel about that?**

**A.N- If you happen to have a problem with anything that I write about, please don't leave a nasty comment in my reviews. :)**

**~TUTU**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hey guys! I'm hoping you liked the surprise I left you with last chapter. :)**

**W/o further adieu...the 14th chapter of _Layers._**

"We should go to the beach!" Thalia yelled the minute they all sat down at the lunch table.

"What do you mean the beach?" Annabeth asked incredulously.

"The beach," Thalia said slowly, "You know, sand. Water. Ocean. Stuff like that."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "I know what a beach is, Thalia. I'm just wondering why you want to go when it's 40 degrees outside."

"It's not _that_ cold." She looked around the table with a pleading look. "It won't be cold guys, we can go and just enjoy the weekend."

"And freeze our asses off?" Percy asked from beside Calypso.

Thalia sent him a glare.

"Stop worrying about the weather and think about the fun we can have!"

"Where would we go anyway?" Jason shoved a tater tot in his mouth.

"I don't know. Montawk? Coney Island?"

"You've got this all figured out haven't you?" Calypso said sarcastically.

"Yes I do." Thalia rolled her eyes.

"So...who all would go?"

"Everyone! This is a friends trip! Well...everybody except for you." She said pointing at Katie who was listening in on their conversation. "I don't like you."

The girl flicked her off and Thalia just waved her away.

"Can I bring a friend?" Calypso asked.

Thalia nodded, "I guess so." She raised her chin towards Annabeth. "Ask Pipes if she wants to come too."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Okay, but do _I_ have to go?"

"Uh, yeah,"

"Why?" She practically whined.

Thalia stood up and crossed her arms. "Because I said so. Everyone is coming and we're going to have a great time so stop worrying about what could go wrong or the damn weather. We're going to have so much fun... Isn't that right guys?"

"Sure," a few people mumbled.

And that, was how Annabeth ended up waking around the mall with Thalia, trying on bathing suits.

Thalia was running around grabbing suits left and right and tossing them towards Annabeth, who was looking through them and putting them back on their shelves when they showed too much of the 'No No Zones'.

Thalia walked towards her with a new stack and pushed it into her hands.

"Don't think I don't see you getting rid of what I give you."

"Did you really expect me to keep those string bikinis?"

Thalia just nodded at her like she was dumb, and Annabeth puffed out her cheeks, "Why don't I just grab a nice one piece and we can get out of here?"

Thalia gasped dramatically and grabbed at her heart. "No! One pieces are for old ladies and Baywatch lifeguards! You have an amazing body, why don't you want to show it off? I'm sure Jason would love that."

"Jason's already seen it," she said rolling her eyes.

"Well maybe other people." Thalia shrugged.

Annabeth's mind immediately flashed to a pair of bright green eyes, but she pinched her arm before she could conjure up who they belonged too.

She had been doing that a lot lately, well everytime her mind brought her to Percy Jackson.

Which was quite a bit.

After she had the first dream about him, her mind just wouldn't quit and she didn't understand why.

The dream had been innocent. Just Percy sitting in on one of the bean bag chairs from the bookstore while Annabeth walked around working. Maybe her mind was just telling her that she felt overworked...yeah, that was it. It wasn't anything deeper than that.

Sure, he was attractive.

But, they were on friendly terms and even though her feelings went no further than that, it didn't stop her from feeling guilty.

Calypso shouldn't have to worry about her friends dreaming about her boyfriend and conjuring up possible feelings.

Annabeth felt like a horrible friend.

And then...there was Jason.

He was hiding something, it probably wasn't big or something that should worry her as much as it does, but it was there.

That however was _not_ a reason why she should be dreaming about Percy.

Jason didn't deserve it when he's been nothing but a loving boyfriend to her.

Annabeth felt like an awful girlfriend.

She could see the black tips of Thalia's nails as she waved them in her face. "You have your thinking face on."

She pushed her hand away. "Yeah, I'm thinking about how dreadful these swimsuits are."

Thalia just rolled her eyes and grabbed Annabeth's hand to drag her to the dressing rooms.

She opened up the first stall and shoved Annabeth inside.

"Change into those and come out after each one." Thalia sat down on the bench across from the stall. "Try them on in the order that I gave them to you, and please, for your sake, don't try to skip over any or you'll find yourself embarrassed when I come in there to watch you change."

Annabeth rolled her eyes and picked up the first suit. "Why don't you go try on your own stuff and let me change in piece." She said exasperated.

"I already have mine. It's black and it's tiny." She sounded smug.

Annabeth tried on the first tankini and glanced at herself in the mirror. It was bright blue and covered in rhinestones.

Gross.

She walked out of the stall and slouched in front of her friend.

Thalia shook her head. "Okay. That's awful."

"Glad that we've come to the same conclusion. Now can I throw the ones I don't like out?" She put her hands on her hips.

"Fine. Just don't get rid of _all_ of the bikinis." Thalia said and gave her the eye.

Annabeth said nothing and just turned around and went back into the stall.

She looked down at the large pile in front of her and started weeding them out, throwing them over the door when she didn't like them.

She tossed the last one over her head and the disgruntled noise Thalia made when it smacked right into her, brought a smile to Annabeth's face.

"Green or silver, Thalia?"

The punk girl peeked her head through the crack in the door.

"Try them both on."

Annabeth shrugged the sliver one on and was immediately uncomfortable with all the exposed skin. She was looking down at her very bare stomach and thighs while she walked out.

Thalia stood up in front of her and waved her finger around for Annabeth to turn.

"It's cute, but not really you. I can tell how uncomfortable you are right now." She barked out a laugh. "I can't wait until you see mine."

"Okay, so the green one then? Good lets go."

Thalia stopped her. "Wait! You haven't even tried it on."

"I don't need to. They're aren't any other options." She shrugged.

"There are _always_ options." She scolded, "Go try it on."

Annabeth mumbled from all the way back to the stall and didn't finish until she was walking back out.

In the green bathing suit.

"Now _that's_ the one!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"I love this, it shows off everything!"

"Wait what? Nevermind then. I'd rather not have my goods on display." She said covering her boobs.

Thalia smirked, "Not with my brother you don't. But whatever." She said before Annabeth could glare. "I don't mean _everything_, just the good stuff ya damn nun! Just think about it, Jason will be a walking wood plank the whole day!" She cackled.

Annabeth puckered her lips. "That's gross, Thals. You think about your brother like that entirely too much."

Thalia shrugged and ushered Annabeth back into the stall.

"Did you know," Thalia started, "That twins can often find themselves in a situation where they are attracted to each other?"

Annabeth snickered, "Well don't let me get in you guys' way."

"I'm nearly stating a interesting fact."

"It's the Sea of Incest." She sang as she grabbed her purse, the new swimsuit and walked passed Thalia to check out.

Annabeth put her potential purchase on the conveyor belt and quickly looked away when she caught the man who was ringing it up, staring at her.

"How are we doing today, ladies?" He said, talking to both of them, but only looking at Annabeth.

Thalia sensed her discomfort and chuckled, "We're just fine. My friend over here," She nudged Annabeth, "Is just excited about showing off her new bikini." She said with a cheeky grin.

Annabeth felt her cheeks heat up as the man's eyes widened and he smirked.

"Well, I hope you have a fun time." He winked and handed her her bag.

She just nodded, smiled and then practically ran out of the store, Thalia in tow behind her trying to hold back her laughter.

**(Line break)**

"So let me get this straight. You guys just...talked, and now you're best friends with Percy Jackson?" Thalia asked incredulously.

"No, Thalia. It isn't like that, we just realized we had some things in common," she shrugged, "So now...we don't dislike each other as much."

Thalia raised an eyebrow, "So...friends?"

"You're going to call us that either way, Thals, so sure. We're friends." She said sighing.

Thalia nodded and grinned as she thumped her hands on the steering wheel to the song on the radio. It was 8 o'clock in the morning and they were driving away from Annabeth's house and about to head to Montawk to meet up with the others.

"So when we get there there won't be any canoodling?"

"Canoodling? No Thaila I'm not gonna canoodle with Percy in front of Jason." She said incredulously.  
Annabeth leaned over to look in Thalia's ear and knocked on her forehead.

Thalia shot her a look, "What the hell are you doing?" She said batting her hand away.

"Checking to see if you've lost your mind."

"I didn't lose my mind, I was just asking a simple question."

"One that makes less sense than the usual stuff that comes out of your mouth."

She adjusted herself, propped her feet on the dash board, and looked over at Thalia through her sunglasses.

"Enough about me, there's nothing going on. I want you to tell me what's happening with you and Nico."

Thalia glanced at her, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Annabeth waved her away. "Oh don't play coy." She pointed at Thalia's small black shorts and cropped tank top. "That's the closest to a stripper that Thalia Grace has ever gotten. There's got to be a reason behind it."

Thalia calmly shot her the finger, making Annabeth giggle.

"I don't know why you're talking. You look just as bad as I do."

Annabeth looked down at her shorts, flip flops and tank top.

"I do not. At least most of my skin is covered."

"Not for long," Thalia mumbled.

"Stop trying to change the subject."

She swatted Thalia's hand away when she tried to turn up the radio.

"I'm not. There's nothing to talk about. Stop being a pushy bitch and let me listen to my music." She said laughing.

"Fine, but I'll get it out of you later."

"Sure you will. Don't hold your breath." She mumbled.

And before Annabeth could get a word in, Thalia reached over and turned the music all the way up.

**(PERCY POV...kinda)**

Percy didn't want to go to the beach.

He did not want to hang out with his "lunch friends" outside of school.

That's where they needed to stay.

At lunch.

But no, Thalia had to open her big mouth and now he was being dragged into the car by Calypso.

She was taking this seriously, too seriously. She almost forced into his swim trunks.

"If you are the only one that doesn't show up, you're going to look like an asshole." Caly had told him when he expressed his deep dislike for the arrangements that planned to take up his Saturday.

Saturdays were for sleeping, and no one seemed to understand that.

He tried really hard not to show his extreme dislike for the trip for Calypso's sake.

Apparently he wasn't doing a good enough job.

"Oh my gosh!" She slammed her hands on the steering wheel. "You are so dramatic, Percy! Stop pouting and if you want to, we can leave after about an hour." She said irritably. She was already pissed that he made her drive because he claimed he didn't feel awake enough to make the 'journey'.

He sighed, "I'm sorry, I'm being annoying right now, but I could seriously be sleeping."

"It's good you aren't sleeping. You miss half of the day from your Saturday hibernating." She said getting on the freeway.

He looked out the window. "I see no problem with that."

He saw Calypso shrug. "I guess I just thought you would be happy about seeing some of your friends out of school."

"Caly, you sound like my mom." He chuckled.

"I'm serious," she huffed.

"So am I. But babe, I see Nico all the time outside of school. Other than him, there's no one else." He lied.

"Not even...Annabeth?"

He shot her a weird look while she just stared ahead. "Annabeth's not really..."

"Yes she is, Percy. You told me yourself."

"Maybe that was a lapse of judgment." He shrugged.

"It wasn't. Stop trying to talk yourself out of this."

"Why do you care if she's my friend or not?"

"I'm your girlfriend, of course I care. I think you need more friends anyway."

"Way to make me sound like a loner." He played with the window controls.

Up.

Down.

Annabeth was a strange subject to talk about.

He liked her, she was nice enough when she wasn't being a super bitch and her nice moments out shined the latter.

Up.

Down.

Sure, they had some similar history and it was nice to talk to someone about his dad, but that didn't mean they were best friends. He was sure he'd find a way to fuck it up between now and graduation.

Hell, he probably wouldn't last 2 weeks.

Up.

Down.

Up.

Click.

He turned to see that Calypso had locked the window from his use.

"I'm serious, Percy."

He ran a hand through his hair impatiently.

"I thought girlfriends hated it when their boyfriends were friends with girls? Isn't that part of the secret girlcode or some shit?"

Calypso chuckled halfheartedly. "You know I'm not like that. I just want you to have fun."

He wiggled his eye brows at her and winked, "How much fun?"

He expected her to giggle, or roll her eyes like she usually did when he was being silly. But nothing. She just stared straight ahead like she hadn't heard him.

He felt his eyes narrow as he studied her demeanor for a few seconds, but quickly shrugged at went back to looking out the window.

He didn't need to worry, she was just in a mood.

He chuckled softly to himself, she probably had PMS or something.

**(Line break)**

About an hour later, they pulled up to the beach and parked next to Nico's black jeep. Percy looked at the cars. It seemed that the only ones that were already there where were Frank, Hazel, Nico, and Jason.

He immediately rolled his eyes at the thought of the prick.

He slipped into his flip flops and jumped out of the truck to catch up to Calypso, but stopped short when his feet hit the ground.

The sand found its way between his toes in the best way and he found himself taking a large gulp of the sea air that surrounded him.

A seagull landed a few feet beside him and he found himself grinning at it.

Damn he loved the beach.

He walked over to the group that was standing by a large tree.

"Hey, Perce," Frank greeted, punching him in the shoulder. "You look like you're in a good mood."

Percy laughed, "I actually-"

"Were you just smiling at that bird? Getting soft are we, Jackson?" Jason motherfuking Grace interrupted.

And just like that, Percy's good mood vanished.

He wouldn't let the asshole know that though.

He smirked, "Grace, I'm pretty sure you're the only one getting _soft_ out of all of us, if you know what I mean."

The pink flush of anger that seemed to cover the blond instantly, brought Percy a large amount of satisfaction.

He turned to Frank, "Who are we waiting on?"

"The rest of the girls and then that's it. So Annabeth, Thalia, and Calypso's friend, Cami."

Percy cocked an eyebrow, he could have sworn everyone at their table was invited, but hardly any of them were coming.

"They said they had better stuff to do," Frank answered his silent question with a shrug.

Percy grinned, "Good, nobody liked them anyway."

Frank shot him a fatherly looking stare, but dropped it with a chuckle.

Percy slid his flip flops and shirt off and walked over to Calypso who was having Hazel rub sunscreen down her back.

"I'm going for a quick swim."

"Everybody's not here yet." She said, rubbing spots of sunscreen in on her arms.

"I know, I'll be fast. I just wanna get my hair wet."

She chuckled, "Sure you are. Go." She nudged him, "Go play."

He grinned as he walked backwards.

Percy stoped walking when he reached the water. It was sloshing over his toes and it was freezing.

That wouldn't stop him though.

He walked into the ocean until the water reached his chest. And then he went under.

He ran his fingers through his hair underwater and started to freestyle in circles.

He closed his eyes and found himself getting lost in the motions.

Before his dad died, Percy would always come to the beach with him and go swimming or fishing or snorkeling. That's how Percy became such a water lover.

His dad was the one that pushed him to join the swim team back in Seattle his freshman year.

Hell, his dad was the reason they were able to move to New York in the first place.

His dad was the reason Percy made the choices he did. Good...and sometimes not.

Percy shook his head and flopped on his back to catch his breath.

He rubbed his fingers together, they were wrinkled like expired raisins. He had been in the water a while, time flew.

He threaded water for a few seconds when his ears perked up.

"Percy!"

"...Percy!"

He groaned as he slowly made his way towards the shore. He didn't bother to check to see who called him.

We made it to where the water stopped at his waist and he looked up already annoyed and ready to tell off the girl who called him. He assumed it was Thalia.

It wasn't Thalia.

It was a pair of very long, very tan, very attractive legs. That _definitely_ didn't belong the the goth she-devil.

He kept going up, seeing some hips, a small waist, a chest-.

Don't stare. Don't stare. Don't stare.  
His mind told him.

He didn't listen and he was almost sad to see them leave when Miss LongLegs squatted in front of him so that they were eye to eye.

Annabeth had her blonde locks up in a high bun, a few pieces falling into her face. Her bright eyes were widened almost comically.

She looked hot.

That was...until she started talking.

"Percy! How are you not dead right now?"

"Wha?" He started walking out of the water and he was now towering over her small form.

She stumbled to her feet.

"How are you not dead? You've been under water since we got here. You didn't even come up for air, you were just laying there!"

"When did you get here?"

"Like 5 minutes ago!"

"Oh. That wasn't very long."

He started walking towards his towel.

"What do you mean? 5 minutes under water is impossible." She starting trailing behind him.

"I can go 7 and a half."

"Minutes?" She squeaked.

"No, not minutes, hours," he answered sarcastically.

"Well that's...um, impressive."

"Yep." He chuckled.

"Well, I just wanted to make sure you didn't drown or anything."

She sat on one of the beach towels and fiddled with her hair.

He laughed out loud. "And what would you have done if I were drowning, Annabeth?"

She shrugged, "I would have gotten Jason or someone to go and get you."

"Jason would probably hold my head under for longer." He snorted while he ran the towel up and down his torso.

She frowned, "That's not true and you know it. You guys should really-."

She cut off her sentence as she started to look south.

He watched her cheeks turn pink, with extreme satisfaction might he add, when she realized how much of him was really showing.

He smirked, "See something you like?"

She seemed to regain her composure and managed to roll her eyes. "You wish, Jackson."

"Oooh last name basis again, huh?"

She laughed and was about respond when Jason called her name.

Her face dropped sightly when he motioned for her to sit next to him, but she nodded anyway and stood up, giving Percy a small smile before leaving.

"What were you guys talking about?"

Calypso's voice said out of nowhere.

Percy jumped, "Damn, you need a cowbell or something."

She laughed and grabbed his hand, tugging him towards where everyone was sitting.

Percy sat next to frank on the ground and pulled Calypso onto his lap.

"Why are we sitting in a cult circle, Thalia?"

The emo girl, who was sitting on Nico, glared at her friend. "It's a _friend_ circle, Annie."

"That sounds even lamer." Percy said into Calypso's shoulder.

"Shut it, Percy! You're ruining my mojo!"

He decided not to mention that she never had any mojo to begin with. He wanted this day to go somewhat well.

"Okay. As I was saying, before someone interrupted me, I was thinking that we could maybe play some games."

"Like what?" Jason asked. There was always that one dickwad that had to ask the stupid questions.

"Like...chicken and volleyball and other stuff."

"Sounds like you've got quite the plan, Thals," Annabeth chuckled.

"I do, we can just come up with stuff as we go."

"Wait!" Calypso sat up, "We can't do anything until Cami gets here. She promised she would be here."

"Kay, we'll wait for her."

**Please review :)  
****~TUTU**


	15. Chapter 15

**HI GUYS! So I know it's been a month, I'm sorry I really am. As a peace offering...I'm gracing you with the 15th chapter of _Layers_.**

**Percy Jackson and all of its characters belong to the oh so wonderful...Rick Riordan *Applause***

**(PERCY POV)**

"Percy, stop!" Annabeth sputtered while Percy splashed water in her face.

"Nope. Believe it or not I actually enjoy making your squirm."

He swept his arm and a wave of water drenched her.

"Percy," Calypso chuckled from beside a tree, her friend, Cami, had finally showed up. "Leave her alone."

Annabeth glared at her.

"You sound 'real convincing, Caly," she said sarcastically.

Calypso shrugged, "I tried."

Both Percy and Annabeth laughed at that.

As soon as Cami arrived, most of them decided to get in the water and play around. Percy especially, he had been needing a cool down ever since Annabeth graced them all with her bikini clad loveliness. Percy swore the minute she took her shirt off, the girls were gushing and the guys were trying to sneak inconspicuous peeks. Well, with the exception of Jason. He was too busy on the phone, pacing by his truck, to pay attention. Percy almost laughed at the irony of the situation, but reined it in when he announced to the guys that after some convincing, Piper would be joining them after all. She hadn't come in the first place because she felt like she was intruding on 'friend time'.

After that, Percy was bored, his girlfriend was hanging out with her new friend and everyone else was paired up doing coupley things. Leaving him all alone.

That is... Until a little blonde girl took pity on him and convinced her dick-wad of a boyfriend to go play with Emo 1 and 2.

"Percy I swear if you splash me one more time," she threatened.

He held his hands up in surrender, "Fine, I'll stop."

She sighed, "Okay, so what were we talking about earlier, about the-"

*splash*

"Arghhh! I swear to God!" Her hair was dripping and resembled the Grudge when she stood up.

Percy laughed and slowly started to back away.

"*Tsk tsk* Taking God's name in vain. How would your mother feel about that?"

Annabeth shook her head and let out a battle cry, lunging and grabbing Percy's head to push it underwater.

He shook with laughter as he grabbed her by the waist and threw her a few feet away, her arms flailing around her.

She swam over to him quickly and jumped on his back, Percy saw his chance.

He grabbed her calves started running out of the water with her on his back, running in circles, and trying, but failing, to ignore the fact that many parts of Annabeth, covered or not, were being pressed against him. Repeatedly.

"What the hell are you guys doing?"

Percy spun around quickly, making Annabeth grab him in a choke hold.

Piper was standing a few feet away from them. Keys in her fists and hands on her hips. She was grinning like a fucking clown.

Annabeth loosened her grip slightly allowing Percy to look around.

All of their friends were staring at them, all with different expressions.

Calypso looked almost relieved and was sporting a small grin.

Cami appeared constipated and slightly pained.

Jason looked irritated, but not nearly as angry as he could have been. Considering he was staring at the back of Piper's head.

Thalia seemed like she was up to something and the mischievous smile she was wearing, didn't help.

Frank and Hazel were just holding hands and grinning at each other.

And Nico, well, he was just watching Thalia, probably wondering why his girlfriend looked like she was ready to plan a heist.

"So...what's happening here?" Piper asked. "Not that I don't find it hilarious."

Annabeth's eyes bugged, "Piper! What are you doing here? Jason said you wouldn't show."

Piper shrugged, "I uh, got out of my previous engagement. Now stop trying to change the subject."

Percy shrugged, "Annabeth started it."

She slapped his chest.

"Excuse me, I'm pretty sure _you_ were the one that was doing all the splashing."

"Yeah, but _you _were the one that jumped on my back," he smirked.

Jason's eyes went wide.

"Yes I did, but you didn't have to run around like a child."

"I didn't hear you complaining, Blondie."

Jason's eyebrows didn't look like they could go any higher.

Annabeth patted Percy on the shoulder and he gently let her off of his back.

She stood next to him and put her hands on her hips.

"Why are you guys just standing there?"

"Because we never thought this day would come. You guys are actually getting along!" Thalia said, flailing her arms around.

"That's not recent news." Annabeth droned.

Jason practically squeaked. "It's not?"

"No it's not. We meet up every week and talk about our feelings to each other."

Annabeth smacked Percy's arm, "Not the time." She looked back at Jason, "We've talked. We're amicable."

"Aw, Chase." He pressed his fist to his heart. "You don't wanna call me your friend in front of your boytoy?"

Annabeth ignored him and calmly walked over to Thalia and asked her when she planned on feeding them.

"I could go now if you want," She shrugged, she yelled over her shoulder. "Jace you're coming with me."

And with that, she grabbed her brother's hand and dragged him to the car.

Percy just shook his head and headed over to where Calypso was sitting next to Cami, her arms gesturing comically.

"...And so I told him that I didn't know the answer and he made me come to the front of the class and speak. He's such an asshole, I swear-" He plopped down next to them.

"Who is?" He asked.

They both turned around in surprise.

"Oh! Um...hey, Perce. I was just telling Cami about Mr. Capner. He was being an ass, trying to embarrass me."

He furrowed his eyebrows, he didn't remember her telling him about this.

"When did that happen? I'm not sure you told me."

Her eyes widened slightly, "Uh...um...it was yesterday. I think forgot to tell you."

"Oh."

The silence that went on after that was too long to pass for comfortable.

Cami cleared her throat, "So...Caly has told me a lot about you. You're on the swim team right?"

"Yeah, captain."

She nodded and that was where their conversation ended.

Luckily he was saved from the awkward stares and small talk that was soon to come.

"Perce! Come here!"

He turned to see Nico and Frank floating on their backs and waving him over.

Annabeth was on Piper's back while Piper tried to shake her off by throwing herself into the water and Hazel was just wading around on her back.

Percy glided into the water and stopped next to Nico.

"I want some Pizza."

"Why didn't you ask your fucking girlfriend to get you some pizza?" Percy splashed Nico in the face.

"Because my fucking girlfriend would probably get something else in spite of me."

Percy grinned up at him, "Lovers spat?"

"Nah," He shrugged his shoulders, "That's just Thalia."

"Sounds irritating."

"Speak for yourself."

"What are you talking about, Dumbass?"

"I'd watch out for Calypso's new friend if I were you. She might be your replacement; they're looking pretty cozy over there." He said chuckling.

Percy rolled his eyes.

"Oh, but I guess that wouldn't work. You'd probably love to see them goin' at it." Nico dunked his head under the water quickly, "Ah. Girl on girl. Gotta love it."

"See who going at it?" Annabeth and Piper asked as they made they're way over to them.

"Caly and Cami. Nico seems to think that it'd be hot." Percy smirked when he heard Nico's protests.

Piper's eyebrows raised and Annabeth got a thoughtful look on her face.

"I could see it."

"Nah, Calypso has Percy to do all the good stuff for her. Up against him, Cami would be inadequate," Piper chimed in.

Percy grimaced at their nonchalant talk about his sex life.

"Um...thanks. I guess..."

Piper winked, "Oh you're welcome. I have complete faith that you can throw it down when it's time."

"How would you say you are as a swimmer, Percy?" Annabeth started, "Smooth like an eagle or fierce like a tiger?"

Nico interrupted, "He's an eagle. Definitely an eagle."

Annabeth nodded sagely, "That's his sex animal."

Percy found himself mortified when his cheeks started to heat.

Nico gasped dramatically, "Is _the_ Perseus Jackson blushing? Good job girls, I never thought I would see the day."

Percy was pretty sure he was glaring hard enough to melt the side of Nico's stupid skull.

"I will get you back. That's a promise."

Frank and Hazel swam over. "Why can't we all just be friends?"

"I was under the impression that we _were_ friends."

"I mean friends that are actually nice to each other," Frank deadpanned.

Annabeth leaned down to wet her hair and came up, eyes closed, her face facing the sun's warmth. "With all this time we have, there's nothing to do but tease Percy about his sexual experiences."

Percy rolled his eyes. "Not that I'm agreeing with that fucked up logic, but I'm bored. We need to find something to do until the mighty twins get back with the food."

Annabeth's hand shot up like she was in 2nd grade. "What about chicken?"

"Who cares about what we're eating, Annie. We're bored."

The blonde reached out and smacked Nico upside the head.

"Not _eating_ chicken you numnut! I meant the game. You know when one person gets on the other's shoulders and they toss a ball back in forth or something like that until someone falls off."

Nico's cheeks got pink. "Oh. Yeah I knew that."

Annabeth grinned slyly, "Okay, so we need to pick teams."

"I'm with Frank." Hazel said and jumped onto her boyfriend's shoulders.

"Annabeth is being evil so Piper, you're with me." Nico chuckled.

Percy smirked over at Annabeth and wiggled his eyebrows. "Looks like it's me and you, Chase."

"You and I."

Percy's brows furrowed

"Huh?"

"Exactly."

He rolled his eyes and squatted until his chin was slightly under the water. "Alright smartass. Get on."

Annabeth climbed on his shoulders and quickly dunked his head under.

"Yo! Stop playing around we need a ball." Frank called out.

Percy rolled his eyes and turned towards the shore.

"Hey, Caly! Throw me a beach ball!"

The pairs played for about 20 minutes and then Frank and Hazel claimed their victory and won first pick at the food.

Well if it ever showed up.

"I'm hungry," Nico moaned loudly as they spread out on the ground, sand sticking to every part of them. But they didn't care.

Annabeth snorted loudly, "Stop bitching everyone is hungry."

"Not as much as me! I didn't eat breakfast!"

"None of us ate breakfast!" They all shouted.

"If you're forgetting, let me jog your memory about the fact that we all had to get up at un-Godly hours for this." Percy said, waving his hand around.

Nico just pouted.

Hazel sighed.

"I've had fun guys."

"Me too."

"Yeah."

"Hhmm."

"I just wanna eat."

"Let's just agree," Frank started, "That it was a good idea to come here."

"The day's not over yet."

"Yeah, I know that, but we should be thinking happy thoughts. That's all."

Percy nodded slightly, "Sure. You dweebs aren't _that_ awful."

"Yeah and you weren't that much of an annoying kelp head either." Annabeth nudged him with her shoulder.

"Right back at ya."

**(Line break)**

**(Annabeth POV)**

"I just don't see why it's even a word."

"It's a term of endearment...babe."

Thalia threw up her hands. "I don't care! It's weird and it makes me feel like you're calling me a pig."

Nico stuck a fry in his mouth.

"What about bae?"

"That's even worse, but only because it's made up. Call me my name or don't talk to me at all."

"Oh no, I'm not giving up on this. I'm gonna find a good name for you. What about honeybun?"

Annabeth, Jason, Percy, Calypso, and Frank were all watching the game of word hocky that Thalia and Nico were playing. This had been happening for the past few days and it was just as entertaining as the first time.

"What about dumpling?" Percy said, adding fuel to the fire.

Annabeth jabbed him, "Don't encourage them," she hissed.

Thalia shook her head, "No, it sounds like my grandma would call me that just to make me mad."

"Grandma wouldn't do that," Jason added, chuckling.

Thalia just glared at him.

"What about Lemon?" Nico's eyes danced with humor as he named Thalia's most hated fruit.

Yes, Thalia hated a fruit.

She narrowed her eyes.

"So you're basically telling me I'm sour, unappealing and fat."

Nico looked flabbergasted, "W-what? Lemons aren't fat."

"They're round."

Jason rolled his eyes, "Round doesn't equal fat."

Thalia glared at him. Again.

Annabeth sighed. "Does anyone ever wonder what it would be like to have a lunch with no talking. Just eating and relaxation."

They stared at her like she had grown a third eye.

"No, Anna. Lunch is like the only free time we have while we're in school. You can't take that away."

This time, Thalia glared _and_ growled.

Jason sat his drink down on the table loudly.

"So you just don't want me to talk at all then. Is that it?" He narrowed his eyes at his sister.

"That would be much appreciated."

She crossed her arms.

"You can't stay pissed at me forever."

Thalia leaned in and sneered. "Well we'll see about that now won't we."

Percy and Annabeth looked at each other for a moment.

"Umm, Thalia?" He asked.

She raised her eyebrow.

"Are you PMSing?"

Annabeth immediately facepalmed and contemplated pushing Percy off of his seat.

She smacked the back of his head. Hard.

"You've been dating Calypso for around a year now and you still haven't learned that never ever _never_ bring up periods or PMS? That is the number one way to get yourself killed or get your balls chopped off!" Annabeth hissed.

Nico patted Percy's back and grimaced.

"I can only help you hide from her for so long. I can't protect you when Thalia finally decides to kill you."

Percy rolled his eyes and shook off Nico's hand. "Stop being so fucking dramatic. I just wanna know what crawled up her ass the week.

All Thalia did was point to her brother.

Annabeth winced at how that sounded and Thalia let out a large sigh.

"Jason is being an asshole so I'm giving it back to him. Tenfold."

She said no more as turned to Nico and started talking about nicknames again, leaving he rest of the table wondering what was going on with the Wonder Twins.

They had been like this for a few days now. Ever since they finally got back to the beach on Saturday with the food.

The very cold food at that.

**(Flashback)**

_Thalia's car pulled up to the beach and parked behind a tree. Everyone, -including Calypso and Cami who were secretly famished- ran up to meet them and hijack the food._

_Before they could crowd around the car, Thalia stepped out, slamming her door and walked straight towards the water. Away from all of them._

_Jason tried to follow her, calling her name. "Jesus, Thals! It's not a big deal I swear! It's not like that!"_

_"You made a commitment." She said, still storming away from them._

_"Yeah, and I'm not gonna break it either! You know that, Thalia, so stop acting like it's the end of the world."_

_She spun around, hair spinning, eyes flashing. "If it's not a big deal then feel free to tell everyone!"_

_He shook his head and sighed, "You know I can't do that."_

"Exactly. So stop fucking acting like I'm being dramatic. As much as you would rather not admit it, what with that constant "Holier than thou" attitude you have going on, this effects me just as much as you do." She jabbed her finger into her chest.

_He ran a hand threw his hair and growled. "You don't even have the complete story."_

_"Then explain it to me."_

_Jason looked around hastily and did a double take when he realized all of their friends were watching, mouths wide and eyes bugged. Everyone except for Nico, who was digging into the cold pizza he had found in the backseat._

_"Not now, Thals."_

_"You mean not ever."_

_"Stop putting words in my mouth," he spat._

_"Stop giving me a reason to put them there."_

_Jason threw his hands up, "Fuck this."_

_Thalia's face hardened and she turned around, her back to him. "No," she whispered, "Fuck you."_

_Annabeth jumped when she heard Hazel and Cami gasp. When she looked back over at the siblings, Thalia was gone._

_Jason walked back to his car quietly without saying a word._

_"What. The hell. Just happened."_

_Nico had finally put down the pizza and was looking worriedly in the direction his girlfriend went._

_"Don't they do this all the time?"_

_Percy said, who still looked a little shocked at their hostility._

_Annabeth shook her head slowly._

_"No, not like that. Never like that."_

_Calypso put a hand on Annabeth's shoulder. "Should we go find Thalia? Figure out what happened?"_

_"No," Frank started, "We should let them figure this out on their own. They're mature enough to handle it without our help."_

_Percy nodded, "Okay, so does this mean we can eat now?"_

_Calypso grinned and pushed him lightly on the shoulder. "Yeah guys. Let's eat."_

**(End of flashback)**

They obviously never worked it out.

**(Line break)**

Percy sighed and smacked his head onto the desk. "Okay. As much as I hate to say this...we need to start working on the murder project thingy."

Annabeth smirked, "Aw look at you, Jackson. Talking the initiative, I like it."

"Yeah well, failng isn't as fun as it may sound."

She rolled her eyes, "Are we going to the store?"

Percy nodded. "Neither of us are working today so we can do what we want."

"Okay I need to see if Thalia can give me a ride and then-"

"I'll take you."

She paused and glanced at his face. He looked genuine enough so she nodded and kept writing notes. She felt Percy's eyes on her briefly and wondered what was going on in his brain. He had made a total 360 in terms of attitude...wel with her. He was still an asshole to the people that didn't know him. That weren't his firends.

Did he think of her as friend?

Sure they had been playful just a few days ago and Percy had stopped hating her with a passion, but that meant nothing.

Annabeth mentality scolded herself for the wave of irrational disappointment that rolled through her.

She must have zoned out a little because the next thing she knew, a pencil eraser was poking her in cheek, repeatedly. She waved it away and turned to Percy, who had a contemplative look on his face.

"Whatcha thinkin' about? From the looks of the scowl on your face, you weren't daydreaming about my devastatingly handsomeness."

She snorted, "You're right about one of those, devastating." She lied.

He merely ignored her and raised both brows, not letting her evade the question.

"I was thinking about our project." She fibbed smoothly. Or so she thought

His eyes stared at her hard, making her face warm at his scrutiny.

Which in turn just made him grin wickedly.

"Liar. But that's fine. I guess we aren't at that point in our friendship where we confide in each other," he pushed his lip out and placed a hand over his heart.

Annabeth tummy twisted.

"We've shared a lot deeper stuff than the random crap that goes through our brains."

He shrugged, "True, but good friends learn to do both."

And then he got up grabbed his bag and sauntered out of the room.

It was only then when Annabeth realized that class had let out minutes ago.

She scrambled to collect her things and ran out of the hallway, surprised to find Percy leaning up against the wall by the door.

"I can't believe you let me just sit there! I'm probably going to be late to class."

He rolled his eyes goodnaturedly, "No you won't. I stayed behind to tell you to wait for me in out front after school. I might be a few 'cuz of swim, but not too late."

She nodded, "Okay, thanks again," she pushed her hair behind her ear and smiled.

Percy just rolled his eyes and and shot her a beautiful grin.

**(Line break)**

Annabeth shoved her PE clothes in her locker and hightailed it out of the lockeroom before the bloodhounds tried to make conversation.

She scanned the lot for Percy's truck when she spotted it, in all of its bright blue beauty. Walking up to it she tried the passenger door on the off chance that it was unlocked, with no luck.

She leaned against the door and closed her eyes, taking in a breath of fresh air. She was strangely calm today. Athena hadn't been giving her any shit lately, the twins were being considerably less annoying, school work was simple, and she had acquired some new friends to keep her company. Life was good.

She swore under her breath.

She had totally just jinxed herself.

The crunch of gravel made its way over to her and she waved in the direction that Percy was standing without opening her eyes.

When the crunching stoped and she hadn't heard the doors unlock, she opened one eye slightly to see her boyfriend leaning against the car in front of her. A hard expression on his face.

She smiled, "Hey Jace. What are you doing here, I thought you had practice."

He glared, "I did, but I couldn't focus on that until I found out why people were telling me that Percy Jackson was giving my girlfriend a ride."

Her smiled dropped a little bit, but it was still there. "Oh. Yeah, we need to work on our project so he's giving me a ride to the book store."

"Why couldn't Thalia give you a ride."

Annabeth's smiled was gone completely by then. A scowl replacing it.

"It's not like she couldn't, but he offered. Kill two birds with one stone."

"What?"

"You know...getting multiple things done without actually having to-"

"I know what it means," he growled.

"Then why-"

He cut her off again.

"Why is another guy giving you a ride anywhere?"

She bristled and her tone suddenly matched his, "Because I needed one and this isn't the 17th century! You have no say in who gives me rides and who doesn't. I wasn't aware that the title "boyfriend" secretly meant "father".

Jason's eyes filled with slight pity, which angered Annabeth even more.

"Well yours isn't here so someone needs to watch over you."

She bearly had time to flinch before a voice silenced them both.

"Hey! Is there a problem?"

Percy stood off to the side next to Annabeth his tone fierce and his eyes hard.

Jason chuckled without humor. "Not until you came along."

Percy didn't even react, "That was a low blow, Grace, even for you."

"Jackson, shut the hell up, man. You don't know anything about this."

Percy smirked darkly, "I'm more informed than you think."

Annabeth moved passed Percy to look straight at Jason.

"What's been going on with you? First Thalia and now me, I feel like you're just looking for fights to pick, Jace."

Before he could respond and click resounded around them.

Percy reached over and opened the passenger door. Nodding at her to get in.

She did and as Percy got to the drivers side Jason called out to her. "We're talking about this later!"

She rolled her eyes, "No we aren't, you're being stupid and irrational so this conversation is over." She rolled up her window and tried to ignore Percy barked out laugh before they sped out of the parking lot.

As they turned out into the street, her phone chimed.

**I dont like or trust him ~J**

She rolled her eyes for what felt like the hundredth time today.

**Good. You guys have something in common. ~A**

**(Line break)**

"He was so adorable, Annabeth. I swear he was the cutest baby in the whole state of Chicago." Sally's eyes softened with pride.

"Mom."

"Oh gosh! And he had the roundest little cheeks, they fit right in your hands. His nickname used to be "Thickems" for the longest until he was old enough to chide me for using it."

"Moooooom." The embarrassed teenager groaned from behind his hands.

Annabeth giggled. "What about when he got older?"

Percy's groans got substantially louder.

"Toddler Percy and preteen Percy were the best." She shot a glare at her son. "He was certainly less moody."

He finally smacked his hands on the desk,"Mom, as much as we would all like to listen to your stories about baby me, we have to do some work to do."

Sally just giggled, "Annabeth already told me you guys finished most of it."

Percy glared down at the grinning blonde. "Damn harpy." He mumbled.

"What was that, Perce?" Annabeth leaned in, her hand on her ear.

"I said I'm darn happy." He said a teasing smirk.

"Mmhm."

Sally got a thoughtful look on her face. "Annabeth, what are you doing after you head home?"

"Oh um. I'm not sure. It's," She looked around for the clock, "Six forty, so the boys are already home and have eaten. So nothing I guess." She shrugged.

"Have you eaten anything sweety?"

Annabeth started to fidget when she felt Percy's stiffness beside her. "Uh, no. Not since lunch. But I can always find something at home."

Sally waved her away with a large smile on her face. "Nonsense! Come home with us. It's Percy's turn to cook tonight and it would would be wonderful if you could come with us."

Both Annabeth and Percy turned to each other quickly and she was amused to find that his face resembled astonishment than revulsion.

Sally seemed to sense her unease, "Don't worry, Percy can drive you home afterwards. We won't keep you long."

Annabeth thought it over for a little bit, slightly more at ease and found herself nodding, accepting Sally's offer. It couldn't be any worse than just going home to her mother and the devils.

"Oh this will be so much fun! Sweetie, make sure you call your mom and tell her where you'll be. Don't want her to think we're going to kidnap you."

Annabeth chuckled and held up her phone, "Yeah I should. She's probably wondering where I am." She lied.

**Going to a friend's house for dinner. Don't wait up. ~A**

She slid her phone into her pocket instead of waiting for a response.

**This chapter was initially going to be a lot longer, but I decided to split them into two so you guys wouldn't be left out to rot.**

**Any questions? :)**

**~TUTU**


	16. Chapter 16

**Okay guys...time to grovel. I'm sooo sorry I haven't gotten around to posting until today, it's just that school and life in general have been kind of a priority and this was put on the back burner. But I promise, that I'm not abandoning this story. I hate when I read unfinished fics and this will not be one of them. So without further adieu here's the 16th chapter of _Layers_.**

Previously on Layers...

_"Come home with us. It's Percy's turn to cook tonight and it would would be wonderful if you could come with us."_

_Both Annabeth and Percy turned to each other quickly and she was amused to find that his face resembled astonishment than revulsion._

_Sally seemed to sense her unease, "Don't worry, Percy can drive you home afterwards. We won't keep you long."_

_Annabeth thought it over for a little bit, slightly more at ease and found herself nodding, accepting Sally's offer. It couldn't be any worse than just going home to her mother and the devils._

_Sally squealed a little and clapped, "Oh this will be so much fun! Sweetie, make sure you call your mom and tell her where you'll be. Don't want her to think we're going to kidnap you."_

_Annabeth chuckled and held up her phone, "Yeah I should. She's probably wondering where I am." She lied._

_**GOING TO A FRIEND'S FOR DINNER. DON'T WAIT UP.** ~A_

_She slid her phone into her pocket instead of waiting for a response._

**(...)**

When it was time to leave the bookstore, Percy helped Sally lock up the store while Annabeth waited in his truck.

After many refusals on Annabeth's part, of course.

As soon as Percy hopped into the truck Annabeth felt her phone vibrate in her pocket.

It was her mother.

**OKAY ~M**

Annabeth just stared at the screen. She shouldn't have been surprised at the noncommittal response, it was just that, a mother like Sally, would probably be concerned about who she was spending time with and what time she would be home. Not that her mother and Sally were alike in anyway shape or form, maybe Annabeth just wanted that.

Somthing nudged her side.

She looked up to Percy looking at her, an eyebrow raised.

"Why the face."

She forced her expression to go blank, "What face."

"The stink face you were just making before you got all stony."

Annabeth sighed and smiled slightly.

"It's my mom."

His eyebrows pulled together and he leaned back into his seat. "What, is she not letting you go home with us? If that's it I can just take you home, it's no big deal."

"No that's not it," She shook her head and looked out the window. "It's the opposite actually."

"Care to explain that?"

She turned back to him and sighed heavily. She had already spilled her guts to him before, no point in holding back now.

"She didn't ask anything. Not who I was hanging out with. Not when I was coming home. Nothing. All she did was say 'Okay'."

"So...you think she doesn't care?" He asked, cracking his knuckles.

"I know she doesn't."

Percy tilted his head, "Oh come on. I think parents always care about their children, whether they show it all the time or not."

She looked at him with incredulity, "Well of course you do, you have Sally as a mom, she's like...the epitome of awesome moms. And your dad...well your dad sounded like he was just as wonderful."

She turned in her seat and stared forward. She felt his eyes on her, but didn't do anything to acknowledge them. After a few moments, she felt the truck start to rumble underneath her. They were driving for a couple of minutes before Percy finally cleared his throat.

"Was your mom always like that? Like before your dad died."

"Yeah, she smiled a bit more, but she didn't really change."

Percy nodded slowly.

Annabeth cleared her throat at the awkwardness and decided to brighten the mood.

"So...I didn't know you cooked. Should I be worried that you'll sneak something in my food?"

He shot her look that told her he knew she was changing the subject, but he chuckled anyway. "No, I don't really cook. I grill. But it's dark out so we're doing burgers, inside style."

"You didn't answer my first question," she raised a brow."

"No, Annabeth, I'm not going to put something in your burger. But you can be the judge of that considering you're helping me make them." He smiled at her, his bright teeth catching her off guard and putting butterflies in her stomach.

Until she understood what he said.

Her smiled dropped. "Wait, I'M helping you? B-but," She sputtered, "I'm the guest. Guests just sit there and relax."

He shook his head and laughed.

"Yeah no, it doesn't work like that."

She groaned. Loudly.

"If I chop my finger off I'm suing you."

"Feel free to do that."

He suddenly turned onto a dirt road and Annabeth realized just how dark it had gotten.

"Is this the part where you kidnap me and tell everyone I ran away?" She chuckled.

"Why did I know you were going to say that?"

Annabeth opened her mouth to reply, but was quickly silence when Percy pulled into the driveway of Annabeth's dream house.

It was big and blue. That was enough to draw her attention. **(A.N- There is a link to a picture of the house on my bio ;))**

Percy glanced Annabeth's way and let out a chuckle when he saw her expression.

She smacked his arm. "Leave me alone! I've just found the house I'm going to live in."

He smirked, "Little problem. I hear some people already live here."

"Eh," she shrugged with a smile, "Yeah I've heard. A mom and her teenage son. I'll keep the mom, but the kid's got to go."

He laughed and hopped out of the truck. "Come on, weirdo."

She got out and walked closer to the front porch. She wrapped her arms around one of the front columns and squealed. "It's just so cute!"

He grabbed the hood of her jacket and tugged until she let go. "I'm sure my mom will love to hear that, but right now, I'm starving and I need my sous chef."

Annabeth huffed but followed him into the house silently. They walked through the hallway and she took in the decor and painting. This family sure loved blue.

Percy's truck was blue, Sally's car is blue, and their house is blue, inside and out.

"Percy," Sally called out, "Is that you?"

Percy shrugged off his jacket and threw it on the couch. "Nope, just a burglar."

Sally appeared I front of them, hands on her hips, "Don't be a smart ass." She pushed him towards the kitchen, "Go. I'm hungry and I'm not getting any younger."

"Oh, don't we know it."

Sally smirked, "Please, I'm still a young and tender."

Percy gagged and ran into the kitchen screaming about his ears.

Both girls laughed.

"I want to thank you, Sally," Annabeth said softly, "For inviting me to have dinner with you guys. I can assure you this will be much more fun than I would have been having at home."

Sally frowned, "Is there something going on at home?"

"Oh! No, nothing like that, it's just kind of boring."

The older woman nodded.

"Well how is your mother doing?"

"No different. Dismissive as usual. You know, when I told her about my job at the store, the only thing she wanted to know why I was bothering with a minimum wage job."

Sally's face darkened slightly.

"What did you tell her?"

"I told her to stuff it."

"Seriously?" Sally asked, grinning widely, seeming amused with the idea of Annabeth telling her mother off.

Annabeth chuckled, "No. I wish though."

"Annabeth!" Percy yelled from the kitchen. "I need my sous chef!"

She walked into the kitchen to see Percy rolling up the meat in to balls and then smashing them.

"I've already got the meat covered, they're about to go on the grill. All I need you to do is chop vegetables, toast the hamburger buns and slice the cheese."

She went over to the cutting board that was already set out and found a knife, starting on the tomatoes. They worked in quiet silence until Annabeth glanced over to see Percy putting the patties in the pan.

"Whoa, how many of those are you cooking?" He had to have put at least six in the pan already and he was still going.

He glanced up briefly, "Ten."

"There's only 3 of us. How much do you eat?"

"Well you're going to eat one right?" She nodded, "Well I eat 3, mom eats 2 and then I have a few when I get home after practice and so does mom."

"Tiny little Sally eats two of those things?" They were huge.

Percy chuckled, "Uh yeah. I just recently starting eating more than her on a daily basis and that's only because of swimming."

"Damn."

She went back to chopping and once she was done, she sliced up cheese and gave them to Percy to put on the burgers.

"Do I really have to toast the bread?"

"Have you ever had a burger with the buns toasted?"

"Um no."

He smirked, "Then prepare to have your mind blown with buttery goodness."

Annabeth just rolled her eyes and got to toasting.

When the burgers were ready they all sat on the couch because dining room eating was for losers, according to Percy.

Sally finished off the last bite of her burger and licked her fingers. "You did good, son."

"I'm glad to have your stamp of approval." Percy said shaking his head.

Annabeth nudged him. "I'm pleasantly surprised. The burgers were good and I haven't dropped dead. Yet."

"I wouldn't let him poison you, sweetie." Sally reached over to pat her arm.

Percy flopped onto his back and groaned closing his eyes, "Ugh! I'm sleepy now. Damn food, I've got the itis."

Annabeth nudged him with her foot, "Hey, no sleeping! You still have to take me home."

"We have a guest bedroom, make yourself comfy."

Annabeth yanked his hair, "Yeah, that's not going to work."

He rolled onto his stomach and groaned, "Do we have to go now?"

"Nope," Sally started, "I'm going to go to my room and get ready for bed and you," She pointed at Percy, "Are going to give her a tour of the house that she loves so much," Sally said, hopping up from the couch like she hadn't just eaten two gigantor hamburgers.

Annabeth got and and grabbed Percy's hand to pull him up from the couch, "Get up you big lug!"

She yanked hard and he finally stood up, almost knocking her down in the process. His arm came around her waist to catch her.

Annabeth looked up at him, her cheeks getting darker by the second.

Percy stared down at her for a few seconds before clearing his throat and backing away. "Sorry." He mumbled.

Annabeth turned away slightly to his her burning face, "It's okay," she coughed.

"Come show me the house, after all I will be living here someday." She shot him a playful smile.

"Fine then trespasser, let's go up." He said and walked up the stairs.

He walked down a long hallway and stopped at a door, "This is my room," he said and stuffed his hands into his pockets.

Annabeth stood there and looked at him with a bemused smile. "Well are you going to to in?" She teased.

Percy chuckled slightly and opened the door.

Annabeth took in the large room. It was painted green and had a bed, a dresser, and a desk and that was all she could see.

The rest was covered in clothes.

Annabeth burst out laughing, "What the hell is this pigsty, Percy? Doesn't your mom make you clean this up?"

Percy grinned sheepishly, "Nah she doesn't come in here much so she doesn't know how bad it's gotten. Honestly it's not normally like this. If I had known you were coming over I would have cleaned up a bit."

She smiled and sat down at his desk, "No i like this better, this is the real Percy. The one who obviously doesn't clean up after himself," she teased.

Percy smirked and grabbed a chair to sit in front of her. "And let me guess, your room is just of top notch cleanliness isn't it?" He gasped teasingly, "It probably even smells good doesn't it."

"As opposed to what? The dirty laundry smell you have going on over here?"

He looked outraged. "Of course not! Do you see any dirty clothes around here? No, they are gently used. Now the dirty laundry smell? That's my air freshener."

Annabeth threw her head back and laughed, "Sure it is Percy."

She looked down, still chuckling, to see Percy smiling at her softly.

She cleared her throat and checked her phone to see that it was almost 11:30. She stood up, "It's getting late Perce."

He just nodded and walked out of his room.

The ride to Annabeth's apartment was quiet and when they pulled up it was even more so.

Annabeth looked over at Percy to see him already glancing at her. She froze, the moon light was hitting his face at such a perfect angle and he looked...beautiful. "Percy," she croaked. He cleared his throat and shook his head slightly, his grip on the steering wheel tightening. "Yeah?"

"Thanks for inviting me tonight. I had fun. More fun than I've had in a while." She admitted truthfully.

He smiled over at her, "I'm glad. I had fun too and I think my mom is secretly ecstatic that I have a new friend too." He said scratching the bad of his neck in embarrassment.

She patted his arm chuckling, "Well I'm glad we're friends now Percy, having fun with you is much better than hating you."

Percy laughed and swatted her hand away, "Goodnight, Chase."

"Goodnight, Jackson."

Annabeth walked up the stairs to her apartment feeling content and tired. She had just made it to her door when a voice startled her, forcing her to drop her keys.

"So _that's_ were you've been all night?"

She turned around to find Jason leaning against the wall opposite of hers. "Jesus Jason you scared me! Why the hell are you standing out here in the dark?"

"I was waiting for you," he sneered.

She was taken aback by his tone and immediately went on defense, "Well I never asked you to wait for me."

He ignored her, "Where were you?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," she said with snark. He gave her a withering look and she sighed, "I was having dinner with Percy and his mom."

Jason's face turned an odd shade of purple, "What the fuck Annabeth!" He took a deep breath, "I need you to be honest with me. Are you fucking him?"

Annabeth almost stumbled back from the force of his accusation. Her face grew hard. "If you even have to ask me that then why are we in a relationship? If you don't trust me enough to just go to a friend's house for dinner and not sleep with them then I'm not sure this is going to work." She kept her voice steady.

His face softened slightly, "It's not you I don't trust it's-."

"Oh cut the bullshit," she cut him off, "The last time i checked it takes two to tango and Percy's not gonna fucking rape me! Come up with another excuse, or better yet, just leave me alone I'm tired enough as is." She opened up the door and slammed it without waiting for a response.

Athena was waiting for her at the end of the hallway. "What was all that yelling about it's almost twelve o'clock? And why are you slamming doors?"

Annabeth shrugged her shoulders and mumbled "nothing" as she walked past her mother to get to her room.

"Did you and that Grace boy finally brake up?" Her mother called to her.

She stopped and sighed, but continued walking to her room because she couldn't answer that question herself, and she wasn't too sure that she cared.

**Why do you think Athena is the way she is?**

**REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW. :)**


	17. Chapter 17

**HI FUNNY BUNNIES! I wanted to make sure that I updated this one soon before life got crazy so that I could leave you guys with a bit of drama. The next chapter will not be as immediate as this one was and that's why I made sure this one came out soon. I have been loving your reviews! They are so sweet :)! I show them to my friend and she thinks it's so cool that there are people out there actually reading what I write. It's hard for me to believe it too. Anyway, that's all for today and I hope you like chapter 17 of _Layers. _**

Annabeth stared at the ceiling above her and pouted. She had had another dream about that little girl and she just didn't want to go to school. She didn't know if it was because she wasn't ready to see Jason or if it was because of Percy. Not that she was afraid of seeing _him_ per say, more that she's afraid of her every growing feelings for him. There. She admitted it. She had feelings for Percy Jackson.

Now, whether those feelings were romantic or not, she didn't know, but she really wasn't excited about finding out what they were either. He had a girlfriend that he loved and her him. And she had a boyfriend that she was...tolerating at the moment, but usually she loved him and he loved her.

So yes, she didn't want to go to school today. She had a bad feeling that it wasn't going to be just an ordinary day. Call it a hunch.

When Annabeth opened her front door to head to school, she was surprised to find Nico on the other side of her.

He offered her his arm like it was 1902 and smiled. "Hello young lady. I will be your school escort today because it seems as though Thalia is sick," he said with a smirk.

Annabeth laughed, "And by sick you mean...?"

"She has a project due today so she decided to catch a cold."

"Yeah I'm sure she did."

"Oh hey, I almost forgot," he said bending down to pick up a cup holder that held two cups. "I got us some coffee."

She grabbed a cup excitedly, "Oh my gosh Nico! I swear if you and Thalia weren't a thing and if you weren't all emo and stuff, I'd totally date you."

He scowled at her. "First of all, I'm not emo! I just like all my clothes to be one color. Black. And second, Thals and I are open to anything Annie." He said with a wink.

"Um yeah no thanks."

The rest of the walk to school was filled with small talk and mindless chatter until they had stopped in front of her locker.

Nico gave her a quick hug then walked away, throwing a "see you at lunch" over his shoulder.

Annabeth turned to see Piper behind her, standing against her locker with a bag in her hand.

"What's in the bag?" Annabeth asked in her best Kronk voice.

**(A.N- Emperors New Groove...hands down my favorite cartoon :))**

"Well i was starving this morning and I had extra. Would you like a donut?"

Annabeth's morning was just starting off wonderfully.

She grabbed the bag and pulled out a chocolate donut moaning out her thanks.

Piper chuckled, "Your welcome. I'm glad I didn't think to being coffee seeing as you already have some."

Annabeth hugged her cup to her, "Yes my favorite person at the moment brought it for me."

Piper smirked, "Would that person happen to have messy hair, green eyes, and a fuck hot body," she said winking.

Annabeth blushed at the insinuation, but before she could say anything a locker slammed loudly behind Piper.

Annabeth looked over the other girl's shoulder to see Jason stalking off quickly. It was obvious he had heard the tail end of their conversation.

Annabeth rolled her eyes as Piper asked what was wrong with him.

"He's just being annoying. He showed up at my house last night questioning where I had been and who I had been out with."

"And let me guess, you were with Percy?" Piper had a slight smile on her face.

"Yeah, but it wasn't even like that! His mom invited me over for dinner when she heard I would be eating alone." Annabeth threw her hands up, her coffee sloshing on the floor.

Piper giggled, "Well I wouldn't worry about it, it's just a guy thing."

Annabeth nodded and sighed, she was about to tell Piper thanks for the talk before the bell interrupted her.

They walked into calculus with linked arms.

**(...)**

Percy was poking her.

Repeatedly.

After the 27th poke Annabeth had had enough. She threw down her pencil and swatted his hand away.

"What the hell is your problem?"

She hissed.

Percy just grinned and went back to work.

Or so she thought.

*poke*

She bristled.

*poke*

She took a deep breath.

*poke*

"That's it," she mumbled.

"Percy Jackson! Why are you such a child?" She swung on him and smacked the back of his head, but not before she knocked over her cold cup of coffee that she should have thrown away a long time ago.

"Shit," she whispered as she watched the brown liquid dripped onto the floor

The idiot next to her just started

Mr. Brunner barely even looked up at the pair he just pointed saying, "Supply closet is down the hall to the right. Mop is in there somewhere."

Annabeth walked to the door her face flaming.

She walked over to the closest silent plotting how many ways she was going to make him pay.

She opened the door to a sight that made her heart drop to her toes and her face blanch.

It was Cami and Calypso. Going at it like a couple of bunnies in heat. Calypso had her top off with one of the bra straps hanging down. She was perched on top of a very willing Cami who lay sprawled out on the floor of the closet.

They continued to kiss it was obvious that they hadn't heard her open the door.

Annabeth was about to take a deep breath and just close the closet when Percy called to her as he started walking down the hall.

Annabeth turned to him and immediately froze. Percy was the one person who shouldn't have to know what was going on in that closet. Annabeth couldn't find her voice but she tried to convey her feelings in a look.

Stay back.

Of course this is Percy she was talking about so he just sped up.

"Why are you staring at the closet, you look like you just saw a-"

She heard the breath leave him as he stood behind her. His eyes fixated with the couple in the closet.

Annabeth didn't turn, already knowing what expressions were in his face and she didn't have the heart to see them there.

Cami opened her eyes and gasped pushing Calypso off of her, her eyes wide. Calypso just looked at Percy with a sad expression. No surprise, no anger, just sympathy and sadness.

Annabeth didn't notice Percy had moved until she heard the door to their classroom slam.

Annabeth looked at the guilty pair once more then closed the door and walked to their classroom only to be almost run down by a stoic Percy heading in the opposite direction.

She wanted to chase after him but she needed to get her things first.

She ran into the classroom and grabbed her things. "Mr. Brunner I really need to go find him before he does something he'll regret later."

He nodded, "Go get him I'll get someone to clean this up."

Annabeth ran out the door and through the school before almost colliding into a sweaty Jason. "Whoa Anna where are you going?"

She ignored him and tried to move out of his grasp, but he wouldn't let go. "I have to go find Percy!" No caring that his reaction would be less than stellar.

Jason face darkened, "I'm so tired of hearing his name come out of your mouth Annabeth." He growled.

She yanked her hands free from his and snapped, "Oh come fucking off it! He needs someone right now and I'm going to help him! I'm tired of your fucking small ass ego thinking everything I do is against you! How about you pull your head out of your ass for a second to realize that I'm in love with you not him!" She took a deep breath, "Even though at this point I don't necessarily want to." She left him and walked away feeling like a fucking boss.

She was relieved to see that Percy was sitting in his truck instead rampaging on any and everything.

With out a word she threw her stuff in the back and hopped into the passenger side. Percy started the car like he was waiting on her to arrive and started driving.

She didn't ask where he didn't look like he would have responded anyway.

When he made the turn onto the path that led to his house, Annabeth became anxious. She had climbed into his car with the intention of helping him through whatever was about to happen, but she wasn't quite sure how she could do that.

Percy got out of the car and was at the front door before Annabeth had even taken her seat belt off.

She walked into the living room and kitchen and finding no signs of the hot-headed boy. She took the familiar path to his bedroom and knocked softly just to hear silence. She opened the door to see Percy laying down on the floor drinking from a bottle of beer.

Annabeth sighed and sat down on his bed, fighting not to reprimand him for drinking laying down.

What? It was a chocking hazard.

"Percy," she waited for a response, "Are we going to talk about what happened?"

He chuckled darkly, "What," he said, his voice harsh, "About how I found my girlfriend goin' to town with her best friend? Oh oh, that happens to be a girl." He shook his head and took a long pull from the bottle, "You know you've hit rock bottom when your girlfriend cheats on you...with another girl!"

Annabeth scowled, "Stop it. That's not true and you know it. Calypso's actions say nothing about you or who you are as a person."

"Thanks mom."

Annabeth sighed and layed back on the bed. They were going to be here a while.

"Percy I get why you're hurt-"

"No you don't." He interrupted, "You think I'm hurt because the girlfriend that I love oh so much has cheated on me and crushed my heart. No, I'm angry and hurt because I thought she was my best friend and that she would have the balls, no, not even that, the respect for me as a person and her friend, to tell me that she didn't want to be together. I wanted to be the person that she came to when she needed to get things off of her chest. I wanted her to be able to come to me and tell me that Cami made her happy." He trailed off draining his beer quickly and then sitting up.

Annabeth thought this over for a few moments noticing that while it sounded like the thoughts of a friend. It didn't however, sound like the thoughts of a boyfriend that was just recently cheated on.

"So...you're not hurt that she cheated on you? I'm talking to the boyfriend side of you." She clarified.

Percy sighed and got up to sit next to her on his bed. "No not really. I had been...anticipating this for some time now."

"Her cheating on you?" Annabeth said appalled.

"No," he swiped a hand down his face, "That we would break up. I've been getting this feeling for some time now, but I thought we would just break up amicably and stay friends, I didn't think she's fucking cheat on me though." He said, his voice getting harsher with each word.

"So, you don't love her anymore?"

Percy shook his head, "No I do."

Annabeth nodded, but felt slightly deflated inside and she couldn't find it in herself to figure out why.

"But not the romantic kind. I don't think it's been romantic since school started. I love her because she's my friend, but nothing more than that." He was looking at her with a strange intensity in his eyes. Annabeth couldn't find it in herself to look away. His bright orbs staring into what felt like her soul. She drew in a deep breath. "Well I'm glad you aren't too broken up about this, I'd hate to see you sad about something like this."

"Nah I'm not. I'm going to try and talk to her tomorrow."

Annabeth stood up and turn to face him, she couldn't imagine what her face looked like right now.

"You're going to what? Why the hell are you going to talk to her?"

"Because she's my friend," he said frustrated.

"Friends don't hurt each other, whether it's intentional or not." She said angrily.

"Annabeth I didn't really ask for your opinion on this so I'd appreciate it if you didn't give it." He said, his face as hard as his tone.

Annabeth flinched back like he hit her. She quietly grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder, "Well I'm sorry for wasting your time then."

By the time she reached the door Annabeth felt a warm hand slid into hers. "Where are you going?"

"Home," she said shortly and tried to tug her hand from his tense yet pleasant grip.

"I drove you here, remember?"

She turned to see a little grin on his face.

She reached into her pocket for her phone, "I'll call Thalia, she's at home anyway."

The grin left his face after that.

He grabbed her phone, "No stop, I'm sorry." He whispered softly and pulled her closer. "I'm an asshole and I shouldn't have snapped at you like that."

Annabeth sighed, "No, you have every right to tell me to shut the hell up," she said with a wimpy chuckle.

He pulled her until he was sitting on the bed and she was standing in front of him, his hand still in hers.

"No I didn't you were trying to help and...I'm sorry."

She sat down next to him, "It's okay. I just don't like cheating, or cheaters. There's always another way to go about things with going behind peoples' backs."

Percy looked at her with a sad expression on his face and squeezed her hand.

Annabeth's phone chimed made them break their stares from each other.

**I'M SORRY~J**

She felt Percy tense up beside her and release her hand, it was obvious he had read the text.

"What'd the asshat do now?" He said gruffly.

"He thinks I'm sleeping with you."

Percy's eyebrows shot up as he started laughing, cackling really.

"Why is that funny," she asked, confused.

He shrugged and wiped his eyes, "Nothing. But you've got to admit, being accused of sleeping with a studmuffin like myself is a whole lot better than getting paired off with someone like Nico." He said laughing.

Annabeth laughed, "First of all, the fact that you just called yourself a studmuffin was enough to get you pulled out of the race and second, Nico is awesome what are you talking about!"

"Sure if you like black."

"Maybe I do."

Percy just smiled at her for a few seconds before asking, "Hey you want some food?"

**(...)**

After eating the left over burgers from last night, Percy suggested they watch a movie. Annabeth shouldn't have been surprised when he put _The_ _Incredibles_ on.

"Beth, this is a classic." He argued.

Beth? Well that was new.

"I'm not saying it's not, just that maybe as a sophisticated high school senior such as your self should maybe be watching something a little better."

"Ummhum like what," he asked with a raised brow.

"_Frozen_."

He burst into laughter and almost dropped the popcorn she had brought over to him minutes before. "Annabeth you should be fun more of the time."

"I'm always fun." She pouted.

"Yeah sure you are," he handed her the popcorn.

They watched the _Incredibles_, _Frozen_, and per Percy's request _Fast and Furious, _with commentary from Percy after just about every scene.

**(...)**

Annabeth was laying on something warm, and hard, and it was moving. She heard a click and a giggle and more movement beneath her.

"Hey Mom," Percy said, his voice rough with sleep. Annabeth had to fight to pretend to be asleep so she didn't have to face total embarrassment.

Percy slipped from under Annabeth and she fought to stay still.

"You guys are mighty cozy," she heard Sally say, but she was positive there was a smile in her voice.

"Yeah she came over hear to help me."

"With what, homework?"

She heard Percy scratch the back of his head, "Ah no. Caly and I broke up today. I kind of made a scene and left school early and Annabeth followed me."

She waited for Sally to chide him for skipping class, but when her voice came it was muffled. They were hugging.

"I'm sorry sweetie, but from the looks of it you're not to broken hearted."

Percy chuckled, "I'm not."

"Well," Sally said after a few seconds of silence, "You should wake Annabeth up and take her home before her mother realizes that she's gone."

"When that day comes she will probably faint from confusion." He mumbled as he walked towards the couch.

She heard a fleshy smack, "Hush and wake her up. I'll be in my room."

Annabeth felt soft hands on her shoulders gently shaking her. "Beth, you gotta wake up."

Her "just woken up" performance was Oscar worthy really. She was proud of herself.

She sat up, "What time is it?"

"Almost 8. I need to take you home."

She nodded and got up to collect her things.

The drive to her house was filled with comfortable silence as Annabeth gazed out the window and took in all that had happen today.

When they got to Annabeth's apartment Percy put the truck into park and sighed. "I want to thank you Annabeth. It kind of just hit me how big of a deal it was for you to leave school to console me." He cleared his throat, "So...thank you. Seriously, we don't know each other that well, but the stuff that we do know is...heavy."

She nodded and smiled, "No thank yous needed Perce. I'd like to think that you'd help me if I was in that situation. You'd be better actually. I'm not the best at consoling people."

He squeezed her hand, "You're perfect." He said looking into her eyes.

Annabeth stopped breathing for a second, but caught her breath when the moment was broken by a car passing by.

"Thank you for the ride Percy."

"Thank you for today Annabeth."

She smiled at him indulgently, "Goodnight."

"Night."

**(...)**

That night she dreamt about Percy Jackson for the second time.

**Ask me anything you would like to know about the previous chapters in this story (not the ones going on or that ill just ruin it) and I will try to answer as many as I can the next time I update. **

**Please review I love reading you guy's feedback, it helps me be a better writer. **

**Side note because I would like you guys to get to know me:  
I just have to vent. Sense I spent probably the last 2 1/2 years of my life reading everything on this site that has to do with PJO, I had to find something else when that ran out. So where did I go? To twilight. I love the books themselves they are some of my favs, but the idea of reading Twilight fanfics never really appealed to me...until now. And...I'm...Obsessed! Obsessed to the point where reading anything other than a fanfic makes me feel weird, which in turn makes me feel bad about the amount of paperbacks and hardcovers I have laying around. **

**Okay I'm done. :) See you next time!  
~TUTU**


	18. Chapter 18

**_HI GUYSSS. *Hides behind imaginary door because I'm so sorry I have neglected you guys since November*.  
School is just gross guys! When I come home it's no longer, go work on my story, it's go take a nap before you pass out.  
So I'm very sorry. The next update however should be more prompt considering I went on a writing jig and finished this chapter AND half of the next one. Once again, sorry, i'll try better next time. :)  
_**

_Previously on Layers..._

_He squeezed her hand, "You're perfect." He said looking into her eyes._

_Annabeth stopped breathing for a second, but caught her breath when the moment was broken by a car passing by._

_"Thank you for the ride, Percy."_

_"Thank you for today, Annabeth."_

_She smiled at him indulgently, "Goodnight."_

_"Night."_

_(...)_

That night she dreampt about Percy Jackson for the second time.

(...)

"Come on Beth open up." Percy was laying next to her on the grass trying to temp her with a chocolate covered strawberry, a twinkle in his beautiful eyes.

Annabeth looked around herself. The two of them were laying in a large clearing. There were wildflowers surrounding them, the sun gleaming down.

Percy had the strawberry in his hand, waving it in front of her face, "You know you want to."

"Wha-? Where are we? How did we get here?"

Percy smiled teasingly, "Did I really bore you that much that you don't even remember where we are?"

"No, no it's not that," she stuttered.

"I just-"

"No no," he interrupted, "I see I've already been slacking on my first date duties."

"First date?" She choked.

He didn't seem to notice her outburst and started digging through the picnic basket that was lying next to him on the blanket.

He pulled out 3 large cheeseburgers and containers of fries.

"Bon appétit. Your lunch has been served." He said with a cheeky grin.

She still didn't know what was going on, but she figured she had food and a beautiful boy next to her, she shouldn't complain.

He sighed and laid down next to her, his arm propped up beneath him. "So as much as I know we need to talk about yesterday, I really don't want to ruin either of our good moods."

She just nodded hoping that he would explain further and not expect her to know what he was talking about.

"I get why you had to break up with Jason. He was a cheating asshole who didn't deserve you. But...I want to make sure you're with me for the right reasons, and not just as a rebound." He finished, looking up at her with a wistful expression.

What the hell?

What did he mean by breaking up with Jason?

And since when did he cheat?

And since when were her and Percy together?

Not knowing what to say to that at all, she made something up that seemed right.

"You aren't a rebound Percy. I was going to break up with Jason before everything happened. You've been on my mind since school started."

Whoa. Where did that come from?

None of it felt like a lie.

Percy beamed up at her, "Good. I've been dying to do this without everything hanging over our heads."

And with that, he pressed his lips to hers.

Her mouth was immediately on fire and her lips moved with his. Sparks were licking at her fingers and toes until it encompassed her whole body.

The intensity grew even more when she felt the tip of his tongue trailing along her bottom lip. She had to pull away for air, only for it to be coming out in short pants and gasps.

He leaned back with a smile on his face . "See now that," he said, his breathing labored, "Was totally worth the wait."

Annabeth couldn't help but smile with him, "It really was."

(...)

Annabeth woke up with a start. She looked around herself, to discover that she was in her bedroom.

She put a hand on her warm, tingly lips and sighed. So she really had dreamt about Percy.

(...)

"I don't care how lonely you think he is, Annabeth; I'm not talking to him anytime soon."

Annabeth sighed and walked faster to try and keep up with her annoyed friend.

"I'm not saying you guys have to be besties, I just think he's a little lonely right now." She pleaded on Jason's behalf.

"Yeah? Then why aren't you helping with his loneliness?" Thalia said as she made her way through the school doors.

Annabeth rubbed her forehead, she could feel the stirrings of a headache. Her and Jason hadn't talked since the whole Percy/Calypso debacle, four days ago. He was still on the receiving end of the cold shoulder.

Still, that didn't stop her from feeling guilty at the fact that he seemed put out and all alone.

Thalia still hadn't spoken more than two words to him after the blow up at lunch two weeks ago.

"I haven't spoken to him because he's been being a possessive asshole lately. But you... you still haven't told anyone why you're mad."

Thalia shrugged, "Jason knows."

"That doesn't count and you know it.

I think you two should make up, and then things at lunch wouldn't be so awkward."

Thalia let out a loud laugh.

"You think lunch is tense because of Jason and I? Umm, have you already forgotten that Calypso and Cami still sit at our table across from Percy? 'Cuz I haven't and apparently neither have they."

She was partially right, there was some tension between the three of them, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Two days after Annabeth caught them together, Percy talked to Calypso and they hugged it out...much to Annabeth's confusion and slight frustration.

"Honestly I think *we* make more tension then they do. They're all cool now." According to Percy, their friendship had started back up just as it had before they started dating.

Thalia let out a sad sigh, "Anna please, don't try to get us to make up. You don't understand so please bud out." She smiled weakly, "I say that in the most loving way possible."

Annabeth sighed, "Fine," she relented. "It's just that..." She thought about her dream she had that morning. "I just don't think Jason and I are going to work out."

Thalia's facial expression didn't change. No eyebrow lift, no dropped jaw, not even an eye twitch.

She knew something was wrong.

"Dang. I'm sorry. You guys were pretty cute together. I hope this doesn't effect your friendship."

Annabeth was dumbfounded. Thals had been their number one supporter since they got together. She actually put them together in the first place.

"What? Seriously that's all you have to say?"

Thalia shrugged, "Well yeah. You don't seem too heartbroken about it so obviously you have a legitimate reason for it."

Well damn. She thought. Thalia was being logical. This was so confusing. "You've been pro 'Jasobeth' from the beginning, what changed?"

"I don't know Annabeth. Some people are just not worth your time anymore." And with that Thalia walked down the hall with Annabeth staring at her shellshocked.

(...)

"I don't see why you're so concerned with her, Annabeth." Percy said as they walked to lunch together.

"Um, because she's my best friend?"

She said like it was obvious.

"I get that, but I don't see why you're so worried about her and Jason's fight." He shifted his backpack higher on his shoulder. "If it concerned you I'm pretty sure she would have told you...right?"

She waved her and away, "Yes, but that's not what has me worried. She said maybe I should just give up on Jason. Like she already had...they're the wonder twins! They don't have arguments that last days or weeks! I'm just worried about them."

Percy just sighed and rolled his eyes.

Annabeth smacked him. "And _you_ as my friend are supposed to agree with me and ask how you can help."

He snorted, "No, that's not a friend, that's a dog or little sibling. Or maybe a Jason." He snickered.

She glared at him, but her usual heat was missing due to her subdued laughter.

"Whatever you know I'm right." He snapped his fingers, "Speaking of being right, my mom wants to know if you're coming in today."

She chuckled, "What does that have to do with you being right?"

"I don't know," he shrugged, "I just needed a transition. Answer the question."

"Yes, I'm coming in. I'm probably going to start coming everyday. The shop is a whole lot better than going home."

Percy looked at her with sympathy and with what she felt was pity. She looked away before she could say something mean.

"I'm going to need a ride though," she continued, "So it might not be everyday if Thalia has to do something."

Percy ran a hand through his hair, making it even more messy than it had been before. "Um, I could drive you. Today I mean. The rest of the days we can figure out."

She patted his arm, "That's sweet of you, but I have to stop by Thalia's house to get my laptop that I left yesterday."

"I can take you," he said quickly, "It's not really out of the way."

She knew it was, but she didn't say anything.

She smiled. "Thanks Percy. I'll owe you."

He nudged her and gave her a beautiful smile, all bright teeth, dimples, and twinkling eyes. "No you don't. That's what friends are for."

(...)

Annabeth was walking down the hall towards 6th period when Piper came to her side. "Hey Annabeth." She said with a pretty smile.

"Hey Ms. Piper, how can I help you?"

"Um so," she fidgeted, "I'm leaving school in a few minutes. My boyfriend and I are going on a date and I was wandering if you had something to offer up?"

Annabeth nodded, but was confused, "Why are you guys going on a date during school? Why not just wait?"

"We don't want any interruptions..." She trailed off.

Annabeth could feel her eyes grow wide, it was _that_ kind of date.

"Okay. Now I get it. What kind of advice do you want? Sex?"

Piper immediately got red as her face scrunched up, "No I've got that covered. More like...what should I wear and how I should act."

"Wait wait," she put her hand out and stopped the smaller girl. "Is this you're first date?"

"No it's just more important than the others have been."

Annabeth sighed and continued walking. "Pipes I can't help you with that. You should be yourself, wear what you would on a normal date. Just because this date is really important doesn't mean you should change yourself or how you act." She paused, "Where are you guys going?"

Piper's eyes grew soft, "I'm not sure, he said it was a surprise."

"Well don't change anything, just be...Piper."

She reached over and hugged the girl. "I hope you have a great time."

Piper squeezed ber back. "Thank you! So, any plans for tonight?"

She shrugged, "Not really, I have work at the bookstore."

"Percy's mom's bookstore right?" Annabeth nodded, "What's it like working with him. I know you guys practically hated each other a few months ago."

She chuckled, "Yeah we did, but we're friends now. Good friends."

"That's good," Piper nodded.

By that point they had been standing in front of Annabeth's class.

"Well. Thanks for your help Annabeth. Have a good day!"

Annabeth gave her friend a hug. "And you, have a good night," she said with a little eyebrow wiggle that had Piper blushing 12 shades of red.

Piper just crossed her fingers and smiled.

(...)

30 minutes.

30 freaking minutes.

That's how long Annabeth had been standing by Percy's truck, waiting on him to come and take her to the Grace's.

Practically all the cars in the parking lot were gone with the exception of a few of the teachers.

Annabeth was cold, hungry, and she had a feeling nature was about to get back at her when the first few drops of rain hit her cheeks.

"That's it," she muttered as she stomped into the school and headed straight for the swimming pool which she knew was Percy's last period.

She could see the entrance to the pool when the door swung open, bathing her in humid, chlorine filled air.

Percy came running out of there like a bat out of hell while he tried to throw his shirt on over himself.

He had obviously gotten dressed on the walk over here.

He couldn't see where he was going and Annabeth didn't have time to move and he crashed right into her.

On the way down to the floor Percy managed to turn and take the brunt of the impact to the ground while Annabeth just landed lightly on his chest.

His naked chest.

Well, half naked.

Annabeth had slightly zoned out on the sight of Percy's still-wet front when she heard and felt him chuckle.

"Well this seems familiar."

Annabeth chocked out a laugh and rose to her feet, Percy following after.

"Well at least I don't have to attack you now."

Percy snorted, "Yeah you were like a wild bear."

She glared at him, "And _you_ were the reason I got that way. You were being a douche nozzle of the high degree."

Percy's grin was replaced with a wince, "Yeah, I wasn't having the best of days."

"Neither was I, that's why you got the most heartfelt apology afterwards." She smirked while she went to pick up her fallen bag.

Percy's laugh was loud and hearty. "Oh yes! The apology. Funniest thing ever! I know I was mad at first that Mr. Brunner picked your side, but reading that after the fact? Fucking priceless."

She bowed which set Percy off again.

She laughed with him until she remembered why they were standing there.

"Hey! Why were you late? I've been waiting out by your truck for 30 minutes!" She might have even stomped her foot a little.

He frowned and sighed.

"I'm so sorry. Coach told us to run a few drills when class started. I got into the zone and the next thing I know, the pool is empty and it's 30 minutes after class."

He stepped close to her and pouted his lip out which immediately caught Annabeth's attention.

"I'm sorry. I will forever be punctual after this. Forgive me?" He said gazing down at her.

"S-sure," she stuttered like the sissy she was. Brought down by the lip.

Percy nudged her as he bent to get his own bag and throw his shirt on.

They drove to the Grace's in comfortable silence. Annabeth only talked when it was to give directions.

It was nice.

When they pulled up to the house, Annabeth waited for him to say something about how big it was, or that it looked like a castle.

Percy said nothing as he hopped out of the truck and walked alongside Annabeth to the door.

He looked over and caught her staring, "What?"

She shrugged, "Nothing, I'm just used to people having a dramatic reaction to their house."

"Yeah well," he chuckled awkwardly, "As much as I hate to admit it, my old house back home was about this size."

She gaped at him, "What did you say your dad did again?"

Percy chuckled, "He was a marine biologist. A pretty famous one."

"Damn." Was all she said.

Walking into the house, you could tell it didn't see very much action, although it was clean, it still seemed really vacant and dreary.

She turned to Percy, "I left my laptop in Thalia's room. Just up this staircase." She gestured for him to follow her.

She went into her friend's messy room and was out seconds later.

She walked out to find Percy looking around. She shivered as she got closer. "I try to stay put of that room as much as possible in case something-"

A loud thud from two rooms over caught Annabeth's attention.

She looked to Percy, "I think Thalia maybe home." She shrugged.

Without knocking she threw the door open and was met with a gag inducing sight.

A pale while ass was in the air. Moving back and forth between a pair of open legs draped over the side of the couch.

If the sight wasn't enough. The noises sure were.

Thalia was a screamer.

Annabeth had planned to to just back out quietly and forgot she had just seen Nico's emo booty. However, she had forgotten that Percy was right behind her.

"What the fuck!" He yelled.

The pair instantly froze and then tumbled off the couch in a bundle of limbs.

Annabeth was just about to turn around and give them privacy when she spotted a head of blonde hair.

No.

The pale ass did _not_ belong to Nico.

It belonged to Jason.

Annabeth boyfriend.

And the long legs with the stripper heals, didn't belong to Thalia.

They belonged to...Piper.

That _bitch_!

**SOOOOO what do you think?**

**And as always...please please review. :)**

**~TUTU**


	19. Chapter 19

**Okay guys I know what you're thinking...'she's updating twice in TWO days? That's suspicious' I know I know. Let's call this a half 'I'm sorry for not updating for 4 months' half peace-offering, because I'm almost positive that after this week (Spring Break), things at school are going to be crazy. So this is me telling you that I'm sorry ahead of time if updating becomes far and few in between. BUT WE'RE ALMOST THERE there's only like...2 1/2 months of school left for me so that's a plus. ;).**

**Also, I know I left you guys on a cliffie, but I'm here to rectify that with the 19th chapter of_ Layers_.**

_Previously on Layers..._

_Annabeth had planned to to just back out quietly and forgot she had just seen Nico's emo booty. However, she had forgotten that Percy was right behind her._

_"What the fuck!" He yelled._

_The pair instantly froze and then tumbled off the couch in a bundle of limbs. _

_Annabeth was just about to turn around and give them privacy when she spotted a head of blonde hair._

_No._

_The pale ass did not belong to Nico. _

_It belonged to Jason._

_Annabeth boyfriend._

_And the long legs with the stripper heals, didn't belong to Thalia._

_They belonged to...Piper._

_That bitch!_

Annabeth's face became flushed with furry and embarrassment.

Her boyfriend. And the girl she gave advice to to help woo said boyfriend.

Fuckers.

"I can't fucking believe you!"

She said to the both of them trembling with bearly contained rage.

She felt Percy put his hand on her lower back and try to pull her towards the door, but she stood firm.

She jabbed her finger at Jason.

"How long?"

Jason hung his head while him and Piper struggled to get their clothes on.

"Since June."

"June! Since before junior year even ended? Jason you knew I haven't had feelings for you in a while, so why the hell did you let this continue if you had someone else?"

"Well why did you let this continue if you didn't love me anymore?" He snapped back.

"Argh! I was going to break up with you tomorrow! I was tired of us, yes, but _I_ didn't go and fuck someone else behind your back." She glared at the both of them.

"And _you_." She said, stalking slowly to Piper. "I fucking gave you advice for your 'big date' tonight! I helped you because I wanted you to be happy because I thought you were a good person." She spat, her voice getting louder with every word. "But you knew all along. Every time you would mention your 'boyfriend' to me you probably felt a pang of guilt telling you that you were a bad person and that you needed to tell me. Was this your way if doing that? Huh? Did you come here on purpose so I could find my boyfriend and my friend fucking on a couch that I grew up sitting on?"

"No," Piper whimpered, "I didn't know you would be here."

"I don't want to hear, speak, or think about you two for a _very_ long time." She spoke quietly.

"I'm sorry, Annabeth." She heard Jason whisper.

She turned to him and really looked, and she didn't see her best friend from all those years ago.

"So all of it was a lie? When you acted like you were jealous of me getting rides home from Percy...you just needed to play to role of worried boyfriend. That's not fair to me and, as much as I hate to admit it, it's not fair to her." She pointed at Piper who seemed to sink farther into the couch, "It's not fair to her because she actually has legitimate feelings for you."

Annabeth grimaced feeling how tired she was, emotionally and physically. "You know what hurts the most? The fact that you didn't respect me enough, not even as my boyfriend, but as one of my best friends that I've known my entire life. That I trusted. _That's_ what makes me feel like shit and I don't deserve that." She finished, her voice breaking.

She felt Percy gather her in his arms and pull her away from the room and out of the house without a word.

She vaguely recalled Percy calling his mom to tell her that we weren't coming in while he drove them to his house. The next thing she knew she was lying next to Percy, on his bed, beer in hand, talking about why life sucks so much.

"I mean. S-sometimesss lifes good. But then othersss makes you real- real-."

"Realize?" Percy helped her out.

"Yeah. Others makes you realize that life is noottttt that great."

"I guess," he conceded. He didn't know what she was talking about so he figured he should just agree.

"I mean," she continued, "I know I had feelings for another guy while I was in a relationship. I'll admit that. But that doesn't make me a bad person does it?" She looked at Percy with an adorably sad expression on her face.

"No baby, it doesn't make you a bad person." He ran his fingers through her hair, leaned forward and cleared his throat. "And uh...who is this other person that you uh...have feelings for?"

Now Annabeth was pretty tipsy, maybe even a little drunk. This _was_ her 3rd beer. But she was not quite drunk enough for her to: A, forget that Percy had just called her baby. B, ignore that hearing it made her stomach flutter. And C, that she should not, under any circumstances tell Percy about her feelings for him while she's in this state of mind.

Annabeth chuckled and poked his wrinkled nose. "Why you wanna know? Are you...jealous?" She giggled.

Her laughter stopped when she looked into his eyes. They were serious. "Yeah, Annabeth, I'm jealous as hell." His gaze intense.

She gulped and suddenly, she didn't feel nearly as drunk as a few minutes ago.

"W-what?"

She asked eloquently.

His eyes flashed to her lips. "I'm jealous, Annabeth. I don't want you thinking about other guys."

"Who do you want me to think about," she asked timidly.

Percy's smile lit up his room, "Me."

Annabeth stopped breathing as she stared up into his eyes.

She felt herself leaning towards him unconsciously when he abruptly pulled back.

Percy started stuttering The moment he saw the look of hurt flash on her face.

"No, no I'm not rejecting you. I would never." He took a deep breath. "I would just rather we talked first, I mean you just dumped that asshole and I won't... I can't be a meaningless rebound."

Annabeth's gaze softened as she thought over his words.

"Okay that makes since."

Percy was quiet for a second as he collected his thoughts.

"So...are we going to talk?"

"About us?" She asked surprised.

"Well yeah eventually, but no, I mean about what happened a few hours ago. You haven't really said anything and I don't believe that you're just unaffected" He said softly, not wanting to make her mad.

She focused her attention on the rim of her bottle. Swirling her finger along the top. "I don't love him. I haven't for a while." She said quietly. Almost apologetic.

"Okay, why do you think you stopped in the first place?" He said calmly.

Annabeth chuckled,

"Well Dr. Jackson," Percy shot her a cheeky grin, "I think we were just meant to be friends. Those feelings we thought we had were probably just platonic love and... I don't know...lust, just all balled up into one. We grew up around each other so it was just...familiar, comfortable I guess." She shrugged.

Percy chuckled softly, she could feel his body move up against hers. "You know, in a single week we've both managed to catch our significant others cheating on us."

She laughed with him and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Maybe we were just supposed to be single at the same time."

He reached over and grabbed the beer bottle from her hand and placed it on his bedside table. He grabbed her smaller hand in his and tangled their fingers.

Squeezing them he said, "Probably."

Annabeth felt like her heart could burst as it thudded in her chest.

While playing with her fingers he asked, "What about Piper? What does the future hold for that friendship?"

Annabeth sighed, "I honestly don't know. She lied to me the entire time and I don't know how I could learn to trust her again."

She felt Percy still under her. "You're actually going to forgive her?" He asked incredulously.

"You forgave Calypso." She arched her eyebrow.

He sighed, "That was different. I don't think Calypso and I ever really loved each other. It was more of a platonic relationship we were just having fun it wasn't really serious unlike you and Jason. I can forgive her because I wasn't that beat up about it and because we had always been friends. Staying friends was easier than resentment."

"I guess. I...I just feel like this isn't all Piper's vault. I kind of consider her a victim." She shrugged.

Percy look at her disbelievingly, "Can you elaborate on that I'm not following?"

She chuckled, "She was a victim. Even though she helped him cheat and lied to me about it, I know she struggled. I remember this time I went to pick up chinese. I didn't realize it until now that she was there with Jason. I saw him in line and then when he left Piper was sitting one of the booths bawling. She may have contributed to the cheating, but I don't believe she wanted it, I just think she was a girl in love with a dumbass boy." She said chuckling.

Percy rested his head on top of hers. "I love how optimistic you are. You see the good in people."

She rolled her eyes and snuggled closer, "Yeah well if I didn't see the good in people we wouldn't be here right now."

Percy laughed and pulled her closer. "Thank gods for that." He sighed, "As weird as you may find this. I just want you to promise me something."

"What?" She looked up to his face.

"I know you think you aren't broken up about this, but as much as I hate to admit it, I know you and Voldemort had a lot of history. So... If or when shit hits the fan and you start to...feel. Promise me you'll come to me...okay?"

Annabeth smiled, "Voldemort?" She teased.

He scowled playfully, "Yes, he who shall not be named. Now stop trying to distract me, promise."

She smiled at him softly, "I promise." She smiled when she got an idea. "Have we talked enough for you? Are you satisfied?"

Yeah she was definitely drunk.

He looked confused for a second before the lightbulb clicked on. He smirked, "I meant that we would talk about _us_."

She held up her hands, "Hey you didn't specify the _kind_ of talk."

He smiled at her for a few seconds, "I guess I didn't," he said and slowly leaned towards her to press his lips to hers.

Annabeth closed her eyes, she could feel his warm breath on the mouth. Their lips had just barely brushed each other when they heard the slam of the front door.

They didn't jump apart from each other. Just looked into each other's eyes. They stayed that way until they heard a faint knock on he bedroom door.

Percy quickly grabbed the beer from the side of the table and placed it beside the bed.

Annabeth tried to get up and move them to a more appropriate position, but Percy was having none of that.

He held her down and cleared his throat.

"Come in."

His mom slowly opened the door to his room and smiled at the sight of the two cuddled together.

"Hey guys. I just wanted to check on you. Annabeth, Percy didn't tell me why you guys couldn't make it to work, and you don't have to either, I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

Annabeth smiled at the sweet woman and sat up, much to Percy's displeasure. "It's okay, thank you for checking in on me, Sally. I broke up with my boyfriend today."

Percy coughed, "Ex-boyfriend."

Annabeth laughed, "Yes, I think she gets that."

"Just making sure."

Sally smiled, "Well you don't seem too torn up about it. Do you need a hug?"

Annabeth smiled and walked towards the older woman, "I will always accept when you offer."

When they broke apart, Annabeth went back to sit on the bed.

"Annabeth will you be joining us for dinner."

She sighed, "No thank you. I would love to, but maybe another time."

Sally nodded and quietly closed the door.

They were quiet for a few minutes until Annabeth spoke up.

"I should probably head home," she said quietly.

**(...)**

The drive home was quiet, the only contact the pair had was their entwined hands that rested across the arm rest.

Percy's parting words to Annabeth were, "Remember your promise."

To which she replied, "I will."

**(...)**

The next day at school was not nearly as awkward as Annabeth anticipated. Mainly because neither Piper or Jason were there. As pissed as she had been at the beginning, she really didn't think it was worth staying home for. But then again...they both skipped school for a date. She was however grateful that she didn't have to see either of them that early in the morning. Sleep deprivation and stress don't add up.

Class with Percy was normal, with the exception of a few more lingering looks than the usual.

By the time Annabeth arrived to biology, she was beat and just wanted to go home.

"Hey bitch," her Bestfriend greeted as she plopped down on the seat left of Annabeth.

"Hey," she said and sighed, crossing her arms and resting her head on top of them.

Thalia nudged her, "What's up? You look...all down and stuff."

Annabeth chuckled and rolled her eyes, "You're such a poet Thals."

"What's up?" She repeated.

"I'm just tired," she sat up and rubbed her face, "With all this shit going on my emotions are everywhere."

Thalia's eyes got big, "Whoa! Little Chase said...shit," she whispered dramatically. "What is this shit you speak of, Annie?"

Annabeth immediately felt guilty, she hadn't even thought about telling Thalia that her and Jason had broken up. She deserved to know as her bestfriend and because, even though they weren't on the best of terms, he _was_ her brother.

"We'll talk about it later after class. We can go to my house, I don't have work today." She said avoiding Thalia's eyes.

Thalia's eyes narrowed at Annabeth's suspiciousness.

"Ummhum. Fine. I feel very out of the loop right now."

Annabeth smiled weakly.

Eventually school ended and Annabeth breathed a sigh of relief when she fell down on her soft bed.

Until Thalia started talking.

"Spill now. You aren't going to sleep,

grandma."

Annabeth let out a long drawn out sigh and sat up reluctantly.

"I broke up with Jason."

Thalia frowned, "I'm sorry buddy." She sighed, "I see you're fine. I take it Jason didn't take it well."

Annabeth let out a loud humorless laugh, "He cheated on me, Thals. The most he probably felt was guilty."

The small girl was immediately out of her chair. "That fucking bastard! Please tell me you punched him so it could hurt even more when I do! I don't care that he's my brother!"

"Oh you haven't even heard the best part," she said.

Thalia sat down confused, "What?"

"It was with Piper. It's been going on since June."

There were a few seconds of silence until Annabeth heard a sniffle. She looked up and almost fell off the bed when she saw Thalia's eyes welling up with tears.

Thalia never cried. Ever.

"What's wrong?" She went to go sit next to her."

Thalia looked up at her with glassy eyes, "I'm sorry, Annabeth."

She hugged her close. "Why are you sorry, it's not your fault?"

"I knew," Thalia whispered tears flowing down her cheeks.

Annabeth's body went rigid.

She calmly removed her from around Thalia and sat back down on her back.

"You knew Jason was cheating on me?" She asked in a hoarse whisper.

"No!" Thalia yelled and shot up. "I just knew that he had feelings for her. Or...something. That's why I've been pissed at him."

Annabeth was pretty sure her confused face perfectly on point just then. "I'm not following."

Thalia sighed and sat next to Annabeth.

"Let me start from the beginning. When we were all at the beach a few weeks ago, there was a reason I asked specifically for Jason to go with me to get the pizza. I could have sworn I had seen him watching Piper about 98% of the time she was around. I thought I was imagining things until I confronted him and you know how much of a sucky liar he is sometimes so I put it together. He swore that he just thought she was pretty, but I knew it had to be more than that. When we finally got back, that blow up? Was my reaction to him telling me that he wasn't going to tell you."

"Why didn't _you_ tell me? You're supposed to be my bestfriend."

She asked quietly.

"Jason finally promised he was going to tell you! When you came to me and told me that you were going to end things, I figured he had told you. " She paused, "I honestly didn't think Piper felt the same way."

"Well she did. It would have been nice to have had a heads up instead of having to walk in on them bumping uglies in your house."

Thalia gasped, "Please tell me they didn't get it on in the gameroom?"

Annabeth stared at her friend incredulously.

Thalia smacked her shoulder lightly. "Oh whatever. You aren't sad about your relationship. Just about you and Jason's friendship. We can joke about this. Laughter is the best medicine you know."

"I guess." She smiled tightly.

"And don't be so sad, you have Percy."

Annabeth's head whipped around so fast the got whiplash.

"Wait what? I don't _have_ Percy. What are you talking about?"

"Oh please," she drawled, "Everyone has seen how that boy looks at you, we've just never said anything about it while you guys where dating other people."

"Looking at me like a friend?"

"Nooo," Thalia giggled and did a little dance. "Like a lovah!"

Annabeth chuckled, "Please stop. Your dancing is making my head hurt."

Thalia finally calmed down. And layed her head on Annabeth's shoulder.

"It will be okay."

Annabeth was silent for a while. "I think Percy wants us to be together." She said, secretly smiling inside.

"Well yeah. But what made you come to this conclusion."

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "Well he kind of told me."

Thalia's head popped up nearly knocking Annabeth in the chin.

"What when?"

"Yesterday."

She hopped up and down, "Okay and what did you say?"

"I didn't say anything," she blushed, "I um...tried to kiss him."

"Oh my gods you kissed him!" She yelled.

"No, I didn't. Thalia sit the hell down," she scolded when her friend wouldn't stop bouncing.

She sighed. "No we didn't kiss. He stopped me and told me that we should talk about _us_ before we went further."

"And did you talk?"

"No."

*smack* "Why not!"

"Ow! What the hell?" Annabeth clutched her arm. "We didn't talk about it because I had _literally_ just broken up with my boyfriend."

Thalia immediately got up and started pulling Annabeth towards her bedroom door.

"Where are we going," she asked and struggled the untangle herself from the smaller girl's hold.

"I'm driving you to Percy's house so you two can talk."

"Fine," Annabeth huffed.

Thalia gasped, "What? Is _the_ Annabeth Chase being agreeable?"

Annabeth shrugged, "I want to see him."

That's how Annabeth found herself sitting on the Percy's bed with a glass of lemonade, waiting on him to get home.

She got bored eventually and got up to look around his room.

She saw his swimming and baseball trophies that went back from 3rd grade to last month.

She walked over to the small cork board filled with pictures that he had on the wall. He had many pictures of the swim team, some with his mom, one with him standing next to a handsome older version of Percy, who she assumed was his father. There was one of him and Calypso that looked like it was from junior year. And two that were flipped over on their fronts. Without thinking Annabeth untacked them to see. She gasped when she saw what was behind the first one. It was a picture from the beach. Annabeth was on Percy's back while she pulled his hair. They were both laughing and had huge smiles on their faces. She flipped the other to once again be rendered speechless. This picture was just a close up, candid shot of her. She was staring out into the water and brushing a stray piece of hair out of her face. Both pictures were beautiful.

She was so entranced that she didn't hear the door opening to Percy's bedroom door.

"Beautiful aren't they?"

Annabeth was sure she jumped about 10 feet in the air.

"Oh my gods Percy you scared me!"

He chuckled softly, but didn't say anything as he walked closer and grabbed the photos from her hands.

Then she remembered that she was kind of being a snoop.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to snoop, I just saw the board-"

"Shh." He interrupted, "I'm not mad, if I didn't want anyone to see them I wouldn't have out them up there. They were only flipped over because I didn't know if you were ready to see them yet." He said starring into her eyes intensely.

Annabeth sucked in her breath sharply and blurted, "Thalia wants us to be together!"

Percy's bemused face was pretty comical, Annabeth might have even laughed if she wasn't so embarrassed.

"What?" He asked chuckling.

"Um...Thalia was telling me that she knew about Jason having a crush on Piper, but she didn't tell me partly because she knew that I had...you."

Percy was silent for a few moments, "That's almost exactly what Calypso said."

"What?" She asked, now she was confused. What did Calypso have to do with them?

"She told you about the job at my mom's store so that we would work together. She said she just knew that we should have been together and she didn't want to ends things with us before she had gotten us together. She told me that the day we made up."

Annabeth puffed her cheeks. "Wow. It seems like everyone thought we should have been together instead of us."

"Yep."

She bit her lip, drawing Percy's attention, "Maybe we should take their advice."

Percy smiled teasingly, "Maybe we should."

Annabeth shivered, "I mean, they are pretty intelligent people," She said as she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him close. "It would be unwise to _not_ listen to them."

"Ummhmm. Very unwise." he said as he stepped closer to her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

And then he pressed his lips to hers.

_Fireworks._

**Soooo? What did you think? Any questions, I'll try to answer them.**

***Note: I absolutely loved Jasper, they were my favorite couple next to Annabeth and Percy, to be honest their relationship got me through _The Lost Hero, _and having to deal with all those new characters and the fact that PERCY WAS MISSING.  
****  
Sorry off track.**

**But no, i have nothing against Jasper, I just needed a character for Annabeth to date that included drama and honestly, I never liked the thought of Annabeth and Luke together so...**

**Hope you like this chapter, please please review! :)**

**Until next time...  
~TUTU**


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